Why is the land so important to Cassie's family? It takes the events of one turbulent year--the year of the night riders and the burnings, the year a white girl humiliates Cassie in public simply because she's black--to show Cassie that having a place of their own is the Logan family's lifeblood. It is the land that gives the Logans their courage and pride--no matter how others may degrade them, the Logans possess something no one can take away.

"The vivid story of a black family whose warm ties to each other and their land give them strength to defy rural Southern racism during the Depression. . . . Entirely through its own internal development, the novel shows the rich inner rewards of black pride, love, and independence despite the certainty of outer defeat." —Booklist (starred review)

"The strong, clear-headed Logan family . . . are drawn with quiet affection and their actions tempered with a keen sense of human fallibility."—pointer, Kirkus Reviews

"The events and setting of the powerful novel are presented with such verisimilitude and the characters are so carefully drawn that one might assume the book to be autobiographical, if the author were not so young."—The Horn Book