ACHUKA Book of the Day 23 Jul 2026

PUBLISHED FIFTY YEARS AGO

“Unleaving remains on my list of most-admired novels for any audience. In its ambition, its narrative legerdemain, its euphoric prose, as well as its moral and intellectual sobriety, it has few competitors.” Gregory Maguire, 2017, Horn Book

A sequel to Goldengrove 1972.
A critically well-received young adult novel (often paired or published with its predecessor Goldengrove), set on the Cornish coast. It follows Madge Fielding, who inherits her grandmother’s house, Goldengrove, and hosts an Oxford philosophy reading party one summer. The story uses an innovative dual-timeline structure, alternating between Madge as a teenager and as an elderly grandmother (Gran) reflecting on the same events — with the two voices gradually revealing they are the same person.

My books do not really make up a coherent body of work to which I could write an introduction. I write about whatever I am fascinated by at the time, which makes each book different. My governing principle is to make whatever I am doing as simple and accessible as possible. I do that not merely to appeal to children, but as a point of honour – I think it pretentious to do anything else. But also my preferred subjects have lain in that large area of human experience that adults and children have in common. And the making of an adult statement about that common area that is transparent enough for children is endlessly challenging and interesting technically. The rewards and the discipline of writing for the young are very enriching.

Read Jon Appleton’s obituary of Jill in Books for Keeps:
https://booksforkeeps.co.uk/article/obituary-jill-paton-walsh/

A beautiful celebration of Jill Paton Walsh by Jon here for @BooksForKeeps – I knew that she and John had married but did not know the story of how they found each other.

For the record, Goldengrove & Unleaving is some of the finest Literature written https://t.co/LZ0H5TDm42 pic.twitter.com/jUEKzddgWr

— Mathew Tobin (@Mat_at_Brookes) March 18, 2022

Jill Paton Walsh is on my list of great children’s authors who, sadly, have slipped out of view. Also Robert Cormier and Betsy Byars.

— Michael Rosen 💙💙🎓🎓 NICE 爷爷 (@MichaelRosenYes) July 19, 2020

Jill Paton Walsh has died. Two of her books are among my favourite possessions – The Wordhoard and Fireweed. https://t.co/OR24cCVpSB

— Frank Cottrell-Boyce (@frankcottrell_b) October 19, 2020

ACHUKA Book of the Day 22 Jul 2026

PUBLISHED FIFTY YEARS AGO

“Taylor trusts to her material and doesn’t try to inflate Cassie’s role in these events, and though the strong, clear-headed Logan family is no doubt an idealization, their characters are drawn with quiet affection and their actions tempered with a keen sense of human fallibility.” KIRKUS

The classic story of a girl growing up in the deep South. Set in Mississippi at the height of the American Depression, this is the story of a family’s struggle to maintain their integrity, pride and independence against the forces of a cruelly racist society.

‘We have no choice of what colour we’re born or who our parents are or whether we’re rich or poor. What we do have is some choice over what we make of our lives once we’re here.’

The Mississippi of the 1930s was a hard place for a black child to grow up in, but still Cassie didn’t understand why farming his own land meant so much to her father. During that year, though, when the night riders were carrying hatred and destruction among her people, she learned about the great differences that divided them, and when it was worth fighting for a principle even if it brought terrible hardships.

Winner of the highly prestigious John Newbery Medal in the USA in 1977, the year after it was first published. The book, part of Taylor’s Logan family series, IS a sequel to her 1975 novella Song of the Trees.

Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry. I felt seen as a lil country Black girl https://t.co/8ZczWBAsEF

— 🌊N A J A Y A (@najornajaya) July 14, 2026

Been radical since I read Roll of Thunder Hear My Cry as a child. https://t.co/kDrTjc2GX0

— the HBIC ✨ (@oohlalathehbic) June 27, 2026

And as astonishing a writer as Harper Lee was, I am still always urging young people to read Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry for a much richer perspective of that same time period.

— Rhonda Nagler (@nagler_rhonda) February 25, 2026

I have just read Mildred D. Taylor’s ‘Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry’ (1976) for the first time. A YA novel based on her own family history. I felt nothing but an unrelenting tension throughout, like a storm waiting to break…and then of course, it did. Unforgettable. pic.twitter.com/i8MBvHiTUJ

— Mathew Tobin (@Mat_at_Brookes) October 23, 2019

Roll of Thunder, Hear my Cry. I read it once a year. It was the first time I saw a book about a black girl in Mississippi. #DDBAskAngie https://t.co/IXOpO2tGxw

— Angie Thomas (@angiecthomas) December 10, 2016

ACHUKA Book of the Day 20 Jul 2026

PUBLISHED 50 YEARS AGO

First published by Kestrel Books , with illustrations by Jim Russell. Set in Norfolk, it features a developing friendship between two boys who share an interest in aeroplanes.

It was the author’s debut children’s book, written in response to a competition jointly arranged by the publisher and the Guardian newspaper.

During the late 1970s and early 1980s the book was widely commandeered by those who were arguing for tighter control of the primary teaching curriculum. In the novel, reference is made to a child getting away with choosing the same topic year after year.

When Andrew’s family moves house, he strikes up an unexpected friendship with his neighbour Victor. There isn’t a thing Victor doesn’t know about the RAF planes flying overhead and the two boys are soon busy tracking their movements.

Then Andrew discovers that Victor’s beloved Lightnings are due to be scrapped…

Thunder and Lightnings won the Carnegie Medal in 1976.

“The integrity of [Mark’s] writing is matched by the integrity of her depiction of the realities of life, and readers respond to the truthfulness of the worlds she creates. Mark reflects on the era concerns of childhood with perceptive accuracy and wry humour; scrupulous observation and penetrating analysis of human nature characterise her writing.”
Cambridge Guide to Children’s Books in English

Highly recommended website – JAN MARK IS HERE
https://janmark.net/remembering-jan/