Download Mississippi Bridge (Logan Family Saga) fb2

This was book #4.5 (book #5) of the Logan series written by Ms Taylor. Although this book was more for children versus the first book "The Land" was, still just as good. And although she didn't write in the beginning of this one this is what she wrote in the first pages of "The Land" and it applies to this book as well... "...Although there are those who wish to ban my books because I have used language that is painful, I have chosen to use the language that was spoken during the period, for I refuse to whitewash history. The language was painful and life was painful for many Africian Americans, including my family." So if your child is reading this it may allow you to open up discussion to things (s)he may never have had to encounter in our society today (as far as the language). But she writes true to her words, if she had changed the language or situations then the book wouldn't have been as Historically OR family accurate to be as good as it was! This can be read as an independent book (without having read the first 4, but in reading the first four you understand fully the emotions behind why the Logan family felt the way they did.) I personally am reading them and this book took me about 25 minutes or so to read. It was as if we were sitting on the porch listening to old folks in the family speak; just like Ms Taylor wanted it to be.

This is such a wonderful true story. Ms Taylor takes the stories she has grown up listening to from her grandparents and uncles-aunts and takes the stories of her family and combine them for these stories! Knowing that made it even more wonderful. This is book 4.5 (book 5) of this series of books. There are 8 books in this 'Logan' series which many people don't realize since book #4 apparently was Ms Taylor's first book she wrote for this series. Since it won awards and she had so much more history to write she took off with it and make it into a series. Some of the books are 'novels' and others (like this one) are smaller 50 page 'children's' books (looks like labeled for ages 7-11 according to Amazon) but as an adult I loved this book and am looking forward to continuing reading this series.

Now with that being said... I am white and I nor any of my family have ever had to deal with what 'freed' slaves or a child from a mixed family has had to deal with. In this book the time frame (depression President Roosevelt era) black people still had to heed what whites said as not many authoritative people would take a black person's 'side', this book is a little different than the others as instead of it being told from the Logan family members point of view it's told from the community white boy's view. His family is very cruel to blacks and he doesn't understand why, he wants to be friends and interact with them but his Pa forbids it. He simply can not understand the situations he experiences all in one day. He is at the community store when he experiences how nice an elderly white lady and her small granddaughter are treated; but then when a black young woman and her mother come in how they are treated. When people start arriving to await the bus the blacks stand off to one side together and the whites don't speak to them. Even loading on the bus is different. BUT when the bus fills up the driver DEMANDS the blacks to get off to make room for the white. The little boy just can't comprehend all of this. It's raining and foggy and a bit later something happens and one of the same black men that was forced by the driver (driver literally threw him off the bus) was the one to come to the rescue of the whole bus of white people. He didn't have to but because of compassion he wanted to show and felt he did it and the little boy joined although his heart was heavy from the tragedy he was helping in. Such a moving little book! So much that could be open for discussions for children and History of the past. Am really glad I decided to read this series of books by Ms Taylor and having it been written from her own personal family stories make these that much more enjoyable (for lack of better wording here) to read. Those of us that never had to live during the segregated (that way) way of life this gives us a whole lot better insight to what it was like than our school textbooks ever did...

Good to have as part of the whole series.

This is an excellent book to use with students reading at a beginning fourth grade level. IT deals with segregation, fairness and honor. It is a shorter chapter book so you can read it with a group of student in a week.

My 10 year old daughter loved it! She read it in an hour.

This is a story about how black people were treated differently than white people. The white people didn't treat the black people nicely. Black people had jobs being slaves for the white people. In the 1930's if black people wanted to ride the bus they had to sit in the back. If there were a lot of white people wanting to ride the bus the black people would get kicked off the bus.
I think that it is interesting that the white adults didn't feel like being around the black people, but their children didn't notice the color of their skin.
I fyou like stories about history you will like reading this book.
Josias was one of the main characters and he lived the story. The bus that the white people kicked off the black people was going down the bridge and went off into the river. Josias went down and started to try to save the people in the bus. A little girlthat Josias brought up was dead. No one survived on the bus even though they did everything that they could.
If I was a teacher on the book I would give it an A+ 100%.

Mississippi Bridge is a prequel to Taylor's other novelsabout the Logan family. This time, however, the reader is treatedto the viewpoint of Jeremy Simms, the shy and sensitive white boy who sees in the Logan family everything that is missing in his own. Taylor captures not only the bite of prejudice in depression era Mississippi, but shows its effect on the lives of those who reject prejudice. Taylor cleverly weaves a story in which a tragic accident clearly dispenses a bittersweet justice in that world of prejudice without taking away the reader's sympathy for the victims.

Love all her books.

Exactly as described !!!