I really liked this book. The author has a very strong sense of character development and giving the reader to feel of the experience of the characters through their words and actions. It has a timeless feel to it, even though it is set just after the Civil War, and the racism is hard to confront, but I think the author is honest in her depictions. While I liked this book, I wonder how many young adults would pick it up and relate. There is a bunch of offensive language and which is what gets this book challenged, but I am not sure how you tell the story of daily racism without using the language used. ( )

Prequel to Roll of Thunder Hear My Cry.

Signed

Beginning in the late 1800s, Paul-Edward Logan is the white looking son of a white southern land owner and his black mistress. His father has raised Paul and his full sister along-side of three half brothers, sons of their father and his white wife. As a child, Paul thinks of himself simply as his father's son, but as he grows older he realizes that he will always be considered a second class "man of color" even if he does look white. He decides what he wants out of life if some good land of his own, and the bulk of the book is about his efforts working towards that goal. He is helped much along the way by his black friend, Mitchell, who leaves his father's farm at the same time Paul does.
The best books are often described as "hard to put down." Well, "The Land" was very easy to put down. The story was interesting enough, but there was far too much detail in describing business transactions, or specifics of how much money Paul would make for this, and this, and this etc. Paul is the first person narrator, and once past young childhood, his narration is so reserved and aloof, that I never felt that I knew him all that well. He keeps his emotions always in check, not only from the people he knows, but from we readers as well. So in the end, I didn't care deeply what happened to him. That's why I found it easy to put down. ( )

Not as good as Roll of Thunder, Hear my Cry, but I definitely enjoyed it. My Battle of the Books club talked me into reading this one after one of the students listened to 1 chapter (in audio format) and declared it boring. So not boring! What mostly took away from the book for me was the author throwing in names from Roll of Thunder for no purpose other than to throw them in there. Granger, OK, Jamison, OK too, but it just started to get ridiculous. Generally, prequels are a bad idea. ( )