Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry

I stood up stiffly, my eyes tearing from the acrid smoke, and looked out across the cotton to the slope, barely visible in the smoggish dawn. Page 266, Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry.

Christopher-John set his lips firmly together, folded his plump arms across his chest and was adamant. When I saw that he would not be persuaded, I gazed again at the field and decided that I could not wait any longer. Page 266, Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry.

"Ah, Cassie, leave him be," Stacey admonished, frowning and kicking testily at the road. Page 4, Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry

"You goin' up to the store tomorrow, David?" Mr. Avery asked after all the amenities had been said. Pages 202-203, Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry.

“Yes’m,” Stacey said, his face strangely ashen, his eyes on Papa.

But even more important than all that, you're pointing a finger right at the Wallaces with this boycott business. Page 164, Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry.

The bus emitted a tremendous crack and careened drunkenly into our trap. Page 54, Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry.

The furniture...included a grand chiffonier with a floor-length mirror. Page 36, Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry.

Mama, pushing a strand of her long, crinkly hair back into the chignon at the base of her slender neck, was seated at her desk watching Miss Crocker thrust a book before her. Page 28, Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry.

...Wading barefoot in the forest pond was concession enough; Sunday clothing was asking too much. Page 4, Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry.

A crescendo of ugly hate rose from the men as the second car approached. Page 254, Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry.

Stacey sat across from Papa looking despondently at the broken leg. Page 223, Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry.

Stacey cut me a wicked look and I grew silent. His disposition had been irritatingly sour lately. Page 4, Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry.

A tall, emaciated-looking boy popped suddenly from a forest trail and swung a thin arm around Stacey. It was T.J. Avery. Page 8, Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry.

"Mama's gonna wear you out," I threatened, pulling with exasperation at the high collar of the Sunday dress Mama had made me wear for the first day of school. Page 4, Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry.

T.J. stepped backward and looked nervously over his shoulder to the south, where the fields lay fallow. Page 191, Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry.

"All right, all right." T.J. smiled in feigned apology. Page 174, Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry.

Then too there was T.J., who, although not really my problem, was so obnoxiously flaunting Stacey’s wool coat during these cold days that I had just about decided to deflate him at the same time I took care of Lillian Jean.

Papa impaled Mr. Granger with an icy stare. "Then you'd better make them good," he said. Page 170, Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry.

Miss Crocker, finding nothing else to say, turned imperiously and headed for the door. Page 31, Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry.

"And ole T.J. just sat there and ain't said a work," interjected Clarence, laughing. Page 82, Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry.

In front of it were two yellow buses, our own tormentor and one that brought students from the other direction, and loitering students awaiting the knell of the morning bell. Page 15, Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry.

Uncle Hammer...motioned languidly at the Wallace store. "Got me a good mind to burn that place out," he said. Pages 137-138, Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry.

The heat swooped low over the land clinging like an invisible shroud, and through it people moved slowly, lethargically, as if under water. Page 227, Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry.

Stacey looked malevolently at T.J. and I knew that he was thinking of the coat. Page 156, Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry.

Always meticulously neat, six-year-old Little Man never allowed dirt or tears or stains to mar anything he owned. Today was no exception. Pages 3-4, Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry.

Although Mama had been a teacher at Great Faith for fourteen years, ...she was still considered by many of the other teachers as a disrupting maverick. Her ideas were always a bit too radical and her statements a bit too pointed. Pages 30-31, Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry.

Always meticulously neat, six-year-old Little Man never allowed dirt or tears or stains to mar anything he owned. Today was no exception. Pages 4-5, Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry.

I found a story about a boy and his dog lost in a cave and began reading while Miss Crocker's voice droned on monotonously. Suddenly I grew conscious of a break in that monotonous tone and I looked up. Page 22, Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry.

As moronic rolls of laughter and cries of "Nigger! Nigger! Mud eater!" wafted from the open windows, Little Man threw his mudball, missing the wheels by several feet. Page 48, Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry.

Little Willie nodded morosely and answered, "...Come talkin' 'bout how Miz Logan failed him on purpose and then said she wasn't a good teacher..." Page 188, Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry.

But her tone was so quiet and noncommittal that I knew Miss Crocker was not satisfied with her reaction. Page 29, Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry.

Even though [Little Man's] penchant for cleanliness was often annoying, I did not like to think of his disappointment when he saw the books as they really were. Page 22, Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry.

You know, back then the Grangers had one of the biggest plantations in the state and Spokane County practically belonged to them...and they thought it did too. Page 163, Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry.

She also spoke of finding another store to patronize, one where the proprietors were more concerned about the welfare of the community. Page 98, Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry.

Christopher-John's whistling increased to a raucous, nervous shrill, and grudgingly I let the matter drop and trudged along in moody silence, my brothers growing as pensively quiet as I. Page 6, Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry.

Without a word of reprimand, she picked up my clothes from where I had tossed them at the foot of the bed. Page 125, Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry.

At first the rain had merely splotched the dust, which seemed to be rejoicing in its own resiliency and laughing at the heavy drops thudding against it. Page 42, Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry.

As the last gong of the bell reverberated across the compound, I swooped up my pencils and notebook and ran inside. Page 18, Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry.

Now he gets a nice bit of Montier's and Harrison's sharecroppers' money too since both of those plantations are too small to have a store, and he's not hardly going to stand for your interfering with it. Page 164, Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry.

The heat swooped low over the land clinging like an invisible shroud. Page 227, Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry.

T.J. whispered, "Here comes the preacher," then leaned forward and said snidely, "How do you do, Reverend Logan?" Page 136, Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry.

Deep lifelines were cut into his face and his hair was splotched with gray, but his eyes were clear and penetrating. Pages 34-35, Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry.

T.J., however, was surprisingly subdued when he settled into the wagon; I suppose that at three-thirty in the morning even T.J.'s mouth was tired. Page 103, Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry.

"Dirty!" Miss Crocker echoed, appalled by such temerity. She stood up, gazing down upon Little Man like a bony giant, but Little Man raised his head and continued to look into her eyes. Page 23, Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry.

After several minutes of watching farmers in faded overalls and their women in flour-sack-cut dresses promenading under the verandas, T.J. said, “Why don’t we go on down to the mercantile and look around?” Page 107, Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry.