This was Taylor's first book (near as I can tell), and it's a book about the Logan family, telling a story that we hear secondhand in "Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry". This is the story of the Logan family trees, and how white men came to cut them down, regardless of what the owners of that land thought. It's short, and unlike the novels in this series, holds tightly to one thread in the Logans' long history. ( )

The Well is another short-form book about the Logans, like The Friendship or The Song of the Trees, but unlike those, The Well jumps back a generation to when Papa and Uncle Hammer were boys. If you wanted to dismantle this story into a discussion of all the subtle societal interlayering of different power structures and emotional bonds, or use this as a launching point to talk about the difference between portrayals of oppression and portrayals of resistance, you absolutely could. Taylor's books are deep, subtle, and intricate, and The Well is no exception.

But you know what? Let's just forget all that for now. Because it's also a very fine story.

It's drought-time, and all the wells have run dry except for the Logans'. Black folk and white folk alike are coming to Ma (Big Ma of the previous books) for water. Not to put too fine a point on it, whites having to come hat-in-hand to blacks for water in the Jim Crow south isn't exactly an easy and low-potential-for-trouble situation. And if you thought Uncle Hammer was a hothead in the Cassie books, you should see him at thirteen. You also get the backstory about Charlie Simms' antipathy for the Logans: if ever Jeremy wanted to injure and rebell against his father, befriending the Logan kids was the exact way to do it.

As with all her books, Taylor pulls no punches, neither prettifying the social dynamics of Jim Crow, nor creating deus ex machina victories for her characters. Instead, she shows smart, determined people in near-impossible situations, acting to preserve their dignity and natural--if not societal--rights.

This short novel by the same author of the 1977 Newberry Award winner, "Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry", set in the south on a farm in Mississippi, tells the story of how patience and truth conquers hatred and racism, through the eyes of a young African-American boy named David Logan and his rebellious younger brother, Hammer. When the wells dry up in a particular area of Mississippi, the families nearby use the Logan's well. Trouble begins when a white family comes for the Logan's water. David's parents teach him respect, honor, and kindness by example. In contrast, Hammer, is more like his grandmother, angry and impatient from the effects of slavery. Excellent for use in the classroom to teach historical fiction, characterization, racism, and tolerance. ( )

The first of the books about the Logan Family focuses on an event that is recapped in both Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry and Let the Circle Be Unbroken. Unlike the two subsequent novels, Song of the Trees is quite brief: an illustrated short story.

The shorter length means less complexity than we see in the two subsequent novels, but the tight focus on the single event gives us something we could never see in the two following books: a clear victory. Papa goes head to head with a white neighbor, and Papa wins.

However, once the headiness of the victory has cleared, we realize that is only a partial victory. In subsequent books Taylor keeps returning us to the clearing, making us notice its scars and rotting logs. You know that Anderson's and Granger's properties don't have scars like this.

In the end, this isn't just a short story, but an allegory, too. An allegory and a question: will the scars heal? Will the trees ever sing again? Not in Papa's lifetime, certainly, but someday?

I wish I could tell Papa yes.