Critical Reading Activities for the Works of

Mildred Taylor
Song of Trees

Nancy Dyer
illustrated by Margery Niblock
 User’s Guide
to
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Copyright © 2000
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 Contents
Author’s Introduction v
To the Teacher vi
About Mildred Taylor ix
Brief Description of the Books x

Song of the Trees 13

Teacher Notes 14
Synopsis 17
Check Your Comprehension 18
Reading Strategy: Learning to Compare and Contrast 20
Graphic Organizer: Compare/Contrast Chart 21
Discussion Questions 22
Writing Assignments 23
Answer Key 81
 Author’s Introduction

Teacher Notes
I first read Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry in 1980. I read it quickly, in one autumn weekend, faster than
I like to read good literature. At the time I was a middle school teacher and, well, I planned to assign it to
students on Monday.
The book took hold of my life in those two days. Mildred Taylor stunned me with her honesty, her
courage in exposing our country’s past and its effects on her seemingly autobiographical characters.
I did go to school on Monday and assign it, along with a study guide (which I had created), to the
group of eight mixed-ability students who had requested it. Mixed-ability groups who read whole books and,
best of all, requested them, were new at our school. Three colleagues and I had just that year started a litera-
ture-based reading program for sixth graders. We started it because our students, who ranged widely in abili-
ty and interest in reading, seemed united in being tired of the basal program—its short selections, ho-hum
comprehension activities, and workbook pages.
Our study guides, though briefer, were similar to the reproducible pages in this book. My students
referred to the guide as they read at home and school, and then checked off their names on my master sched-
ule when they finished the book and were ready to join a discussion. Group members, who stayed together
for the year, had to be prepared to answer the guide questions, to define vocabulary words, and to engage in
extended talk about the book.
The book groups were a huge success, with results way beyond our expectations. Students read and
read. We teachers could hardly keep up with the schedule of discussions. Students talked about books in and
out of school. They recommended titles to friends. Book discussions often ended in a lively clamor as they
debated which of thirty titles should be added to their list of “next books.” In short, the students were moti-
vated and the teachers were happy. We all felt successful.
By the end of the year, the book discussions ran themselves. And the talk was sophisticated, and often
quite intense. More and more often, students compared one character to another, one writer to another, one
setting to another. All had favorite writers. Mildred Taylor was one of them. By winter, every group had read
Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry and Taylor’s strongest supporters longed for a sequel. But they, unlike your
students, had to wait a year for the publication of Let the Circle Be Unbroken.
I’ve written this guide to Taylor’s books with those sixth graders in mind. They were the first to show
me the energy and humanity that is unleashed when we manage to integrate powerful literature into stu-
dents’ lives.

Nancy Dyer is a reading specialist who currently works with primary students in Cambridge,
Massachusetts. Her special interest is in using literature—poetry, fiction, autobiography, magazines—to
help children develop a love of reading. Ms. Dyer grew up in rural New England in the 1950s. In 1968,
after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, she helped found the educational group Action Now to
facilitate dialogue between the white and black communities in Kalamazoo, Michigan.

v
 To the Teacher
Teacher Notes

This is a reproducible teacher guide that offers a variety of ways to approach a novel with a group of stu-
dents, or to assign individual student reading. The book is divided into five major sections, each comprising
information and activities related to a work by Mildred Taylor. An Answer Key at the back includes suggest-
ed answers to all the questions on the reproducible student pages.
◆ Teacher Notes
The unit begins with information that will be helpful as you initially present the book, prepare your students
for reading, and guide them as they read. The teacher pages feature a brief excerpt from the book that will
draw students’ attention to its major theme; suggestions for introducing the book; background on the histor-
ical period and terms; instructional plans for building vocabulary, implementing a reading strategy, and
teaching a literary element; reading approaches for ESL and other students; and several suggested classroom
projects.
◆ Book Synopses
The guide provides a detailed synopsis. In the synopses, you will be referred to book page numbers. These
numbers correspond to the paperback edition of Taylor’s book that is listed in the Description of the Novels.
◆ Reproducible Student Pages
Following the teacher notes is a series of reproducible pages for students. Check Your Comprehension pages
provide questions for students as they read each chapter or book section. Their answers to these questions
will be brief, generally a few sentences, and space is provided for writing. Students’ attention to these ques-
tions will ensure that they have a basic comprehension of the book.
Comprehension questions are followed by two pages designed to help students read strategically. The
first explains, in easy-to-read language, the reading strategy detailed for you in the teacher notes. The second
page provides a graphic organizer—for example, a compare/contrast chart or a time line—that allows stu-
dents to visualize and apply the strategy as they read the book. Suggestions are given for students to use these
same strategies and organizers for other school assignments.
The Discussion Questions that follow build from students’ literal comprehension of the novel. They
require readers to make connections between the historical era and the book events, to draw conclusions
about characters, and to reflect on causal relationships. Some questions encourage students to relate their
reading to their own lives; others focus on the author’s craft. Use these questions for group discussion, or
as writing assignments after students have completed the book.
The final reproducible page provides three or four Writing Assignments. These suggestions for students
cover a range of writing skills and interests. For example, students are given guidance to write a passage in the
author’s style or to prepare a journalist’s report on a story event.
◆ Historical Terms and Names in Mildred Taylor’s Books
This book is set in a significant historical period and contains critical terms and names. A number of these
terms are defined on the next page. You may want to discuss them as you introduce, and build your students’
background for, the book.
cash money money in the form of bills and currency. The work of sharecroppers was often compensated
in goods and services rather than cash; the term is best understood by this comparison.
chain gang a group of convicts chained together by guards and used for outdoor labor

vi
 Critical Reading Activities for the Works of Mildred Taylor vii

Davis, Jefferson Raised in Mississippi, Davis was the U.S. Secretary of War and a senator from Mississippi
before being chosen president of the Confederacy.

Teacher Notes
deducts credit charges made by sharecroppers at plantation stores. The goods charged were often so expen-
sive and the interest so high that the debts could reduce a farm family’s yearly earnings to zero.
Great Depression a period of severe economic hardship in the 1930s. Cotton prices in Mississippi, for
example, fell from $.35 a pound in 1919 to $.11 by 1934.
Jim Crow laws the slang term for laws passed in the South after the Civil War that legislated discrimination
and suppressed the rights of African Americans
lynch to execute without due process of law, usually by hanging. Blacks were the most common victims
of lynching.
mortgage a pledge of property to a creditor as security for repayment of a debt
night riders, night men secret bands of white men who engaged in terrorism for revenge and intimidation.
The bands were first formed in the Southern states during Reconstruction. Again, blacks were by far their
most common victims.
Rebels soldiers in the Confederate Army
Reconstruction the historical period (1865–1877) during which the former Confederate States were
controlled by the U.S. government before being readmitted to the Union
revival meeting a meeting for the purpose of reawakening religious faith, which often includes impassioned
preaching and public testimony
Roosevelt, Franklin D. U.S. president from 1933 to 1945, Roosevelt instituted many programs to build
the economy of rural America and to get relief for its poorest citizens. Political compromise, inefficiency, and
corruption caused some programs to fail in their goals.
segregation the policy and practice of imposing social separation of races, as a means of discrimination
sharecroppers tenant farmers who received seed, fertilizer, farm animals, and tools from the landowner in
return for turning over as much as half of their yield as rent. Many were given credit from stores that the
landowner approved of. It was common for sharecropping families to become indebted to these store owners
or to landowners.
tar and feather to punish a person by covering him or her with tar and feathers. Like lynching, it was used
by whites in the post-Civil War South to intimidate African Americans.
tenant farmers farmers who rented homes and land from landowners. They owned their own animals and
equipment, bought their own seed, and paid rent in “cash money,” not crops.
Uncle Tom an offensive term for a black person who is seen as being humiliatingly subservient or deferential
to whites; from the title character in Harriet Beecher Stowe’s 1852 antislavery novel, Uncle Tom’s Cabin
uppity an informal term used to describe people who put on airs
vigilantes groups of whites who, without legal authority, assumed the power to pursue and punish blacks
who were suspected of offenses
◆ Teaching Options
Student Packets A packet consisting of the novel exerpt, Check Your Comprehension questions, Reading
Strategies Questions, Graphic Organizer, Discussion Questions, and Writing Assignments can be assembled
for student use. Blank paper for journals might also be included.
Journals Two types of journals would be appropriate for this course of study: a response journal and a char-
acter study journal.
For the response journal, have students fold their papers in half to form two vertical columns. Tell stu-
dents to record major events from the book in the left column and to write their feelings or comments about
 viii Critical Reading Activities for the Works of Mildred Taylor

the events in the right column. Appropriate headings for their response journals might be “What Happens”
and “My Response.”
Teacher Notes

For the character study journal, suggest the headings “What the Main Character Says or Does” and
“What This Tells Me.” Suggest that students use their journals to do a mapping activity that shows the
personality traits of the main character in the novel.
Invite students who are keeping the same type of journal to share their responses with a partner.
◆ Grouping Options
Below Level/ESL: Have students listen to an unabridged sound recording or audio book of one of Taylor’s
work. Use the reproducible materials in this guide to provide students with a reading guide or summary
to help them follow the story.
On Level: Introduce students to the reading strategies covered in this unit. Using passages from the novel,
model for students how good readers apply these strategies. You may need to help students fill out the
Graphic Organizer.
Above Level: Allow students to read the novel independently. They can work in their literature circles,
with a partner, or in small groups to answer the Discussion Questions. Allow time for students to share their
response questions.
◆ Unit Projects
Drawing Students might like to create an illustration depicting one scene from the novel to add to a mural
on display in the hallway.
Music/Dance Students who enjoy composing might like to create a dance and/or song depicting the action
of the plot in this novel.
Listening/Speaking Suggest that students select one of the following activities:
• Conduct an “interview” with someone portraying one of the book characters.
• Write a poem based on the novel to present to the class.
• Make a recording of a choral reading or reader’s theater presentation.
Author Study Have students who have read two or more of Taylor’s books write a report that compares and
contrasts main characters or major themes.

◆ Internet Sites
• The American Library Association has 700+ Great Sites for Children at http://www.ala.org/
parentspage/greatsites/litw.html. Go to the individual author site at http://www.wcils.rutgers.edu/
special/kay/author.html
• You can also find a biography of Mildred Taylor at Penguin Putnam Inc. Online,
http://www.penguinputnam.com/yreaders/index.htm.
◆ Related Reading
Students might enjoy these theme-related novels:
A Gathering of Old Men by Ernest J. Gaines
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Sounder by William Howard Armstrong
 About Mildred Taylor

Teacher Notes
Mildred Taylor was born in 1943 in Jackson, Mississippi—close
to the land she writes about. Her immediate family, including one
older sister, left the state when Mildred was an infant, although her
extended family remained on the family land. She has said that
her father, Wilbert Taylor, did not want his daughters to suffer the
same racial hostilities and educational limitations he had endured
growing up in Mississippi.
The author graduated from the Toledo, Ohio, public schools
and then went on to receive a Bachelor of Education degree from
the University of Toledo in 1965. She taught English and history
briefly in the United States before joining the Peace Corps, which
allowed her to realize a teenage dream: to live and work in Africa.
She taught in Yirgalem, Ethiopia, for two years and returned to the
United States to become a Peace Corps recruiter. Before establish-
ing herself as a writer for young adults, she earned her master’s degree in journalism at the University of
Colorado and was instrumental in structuring the Black Studies program there. She also taught study skills
at the college level, and worked as a proofreader and editor in Los Angeles.
Taylor dedicates Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry to the memory of her father, “who lived many adven-
tures of the boy Stacey and who was in essence the man David.” To her family, her father especially, she
attributes her love of storytelling and her early desire to set the record straight about the values taught in
black families. About her family trips back to Mississippi, she has said:
[At the many gatherings we had when I was a child,] there was always time for talk, and
when we children had finished all the games we could think to play, we would join the adults,
soon becoming enraptured by their talk, for it would often turn to a history which we heard only
at home, a history of Black people told through stories.
Those stories about the small and often dangerous triumphs of Black people, those stories
about human pride and survival in a cruelly racist society were like nothing I read in the history
books or the books I devoured at the local library. There were no Black heroes or heroines in
those books; no beautiful Black ladies, no handsome Black men; no people filled with pride,
strength, and endurance.
In a speech given in 1977 as she accepted the Newbery Medal for Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, the
author describes her motivation for writing:
By the time I entered high school, I had a driving compulsion to paint a truer picture of
Black people. I wanted to show the endurance of the Black World, with strong fathers and con-
cerned mothers; I wanted to show happy, loved children about whom other children, both Black
and white, could say: “Hey, I really like them! I feel what they feel!” I wanted to show a black
family united in love and pride, of which the reader would like to be a part.
Pride, strength, endurance, love, happiness. Add heroism to the list of themes and you have the basis
for exploring any of Mildred Taylor’s books with your students.

ix
 Description of the Novels
Teacher Notes

Walch has individual teaching units for the following Mildred Taylor novels:

Mississippi Bridge
Illustrated by Max Ginsburg
Copyright 1990
Paperback edition: Bantam Skylark; Bantam Doubleday Dell; 62 pages
Reading level: 4–5
Summary: Ten-year-old Jeremy Simms narrates the events of one rainy Mississippi day, which begins with
troubling yet common racial antagonisms and ends in tragedy.
Song of the Trees
Illustrated by Jerry Pinkney
Copyright 1975
Paperback edition: Bantam Skylark; Bantam Doubleday Dell; 54 pages
Reading level: 4
Summary: Young Cassie Logan knows that only dire threats could force her grandmother to allow clear-
cutting of the family’s precious forest. In a dramatic story climax, her father stops the cutting.

Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry

Copyright 1976
Paperback edition: Puffin Books; Penguin Putnam; 276 pages
Spanish Edition: Lloro Por La Tierra
Audiotape: Penguin Audiobooks, unabridged, 1996
Video: King Bee Video, with Morgan Freeman, 1993. Available at libraries and video stores
Reading level: 5–6
Summary: In 1933 Mississippi, even the youngest Logan knows there’s a price to pay for standing against
injustice and doing what’s right, but none of them could predict that might mean burning their own land to
halt a murder.
Let the Circle Be Unbroken
Copyright 1981
Paperback edition: Puffin Books; Penguin Putnam; 394 pages
Reading level: 5–6
Summary: The Logan family continues to face hardships with courage and strength. Young neighbor T.J.
Avery is tried before an all-white jury; teenage Stacey Logan risks his life to earn money for the family.

The Road to Memphis

Copyright 1990
Paperback edition: Puffin Books; Penguin Putnam; 290 pages
Reading level: 5–6
Summary: It’s 1941 and Cassie and Stacey Logan are living in Jackson, Mississippi. On a visit back home,
their friend Moe is taunted by malicious white youths and he strikes out against them. Now the young
people struggle to help him escape vigilante justice.

A VHS videotape about Mildred Taylor herself is available through American School Publishing:
Meet Newbery Author: Mildred Taylor (color, 21 minutes)

x
 Song of the Trees

“ On the ground lay countless trees. Trees that had once been such tall, strong things. So strong
that I could fling my arms partially around one of them and feel safe and secure. So tall and strong
that their boughs had formed a forest temple.
And old.
So old that Indians had once built fires at their feet and had sung happy songs of happy
days. So old, they had hidden fleeing black men in the night and listened to their sad tales of a
foreign land.

“
In the cold of winter when the ground lay frozen, they had sung their frosty ballads of years
gone by. Or on a muggy, sweat-drenched day, their leaves had rippled softly, lazily, like restless green
fingers strumming at a guitar, echoing their epic tales.
But now they would sing no more. They lay forever silent upon the ground.
 Teacher Notes
Teacher Notes

◆ Introducing the Book

Song of the Trees was Mildred Taylor’s first published work for children. In biographical notes, she has said
that she completed the story in just four days, driven by a writing-contest deadline. In fact, she won the
contest—the 1973 children’s prize in the African American category from the Council on Interracial Books.
The story is set in rural Mississippi in 1933 and is based on an incident from the childhood of Taylor’s
father, master storyteller Wilbert L. Taylor. The author calls her fictional family the Logans: grandmother Big
Ma Logan; parents Mary and David; and children Stacey, Cassie, Christopher-John, and Little Man. These
characters continue in her longer works, set in the 1930s and 1940s, and their stories continue to be narrated
by daughter Cassie. Like all of Taylor’s books, Song of the Trees presents a positive picture of African American
family life and requires readers to face squarely one of our country’s moral shortcomings: slavery and the
historical suppression of black rights.
Before students read, discuss the author’s dedication to her family at the start of the book and share
information from “About Mildred Taylor” on page ix of this guide. You may also want to discuss the book’s
setting and relevant historical terms. (See below.)

◆ Historical Background: Working the Mississippi Land, 1860–1935

After the Civil War, large plantations were divided into smaller farms worked by tenant farmers. Many
of these farmers paid rent to the landowner and worked the land with their own tools and animals. They
usually bought goods on credit at the plantation stores, and earned the proceeds from the crop sales. In the
early 1900s, more than half of tenant farmers—white and black—were sharecroppers. They received seed,
fertilizer, farm animals, and tools from the landowner in return for turning over as much as half of their yield
as rent. It was common for sharecropping families to become indebted to the landowners, with little hope of
loosening their bond. Tenant farming gradually disappeared in Mississippi between 1940 and 1970 with the
introduction of the mechanical cotton picker and the use of chemicals for “chopping” cotton.
You may want to discuss these names and terms before students read: Franklin D. Roosevelt, Great
Depression, mortgage. See page vii of this guide for explanations.

◆ Build Vocabulary: Figurative Language

Mildred Taylor employs a rich vocabulary to describe the facial expressions and voices of her characters.
Students can appreciate and learn from her writing by studying the phrases on the next page. If several
students have read Song of the Trees, you might want to try this cooperative learning activity:
• Divide students into groups and assign a set of terms to each group.
• Ask them first to reread the scene from which a phrase is taken, then to define the terms, and
finally to discuss the events and emotions behind them.
• Some students may want to perform the scenes as reader’s theater.

2
 Teacher Notes 3

SET 1: Pages 7–12 SET 3: Pages 40–45

Teacher Notes
Facial Expressions Facial Expressions
Christopher-John’s eyes slid blissfully shut (page 10) the children looked woefully (page 40)
Cassie looked suspiciously (page 12) children’s eyes went wide (page 43)
Voice Qualities Mr. Anderson smiled cunningly (page 44)
Cassie fussed (page 7) Mr. Anderson exploded (page 44)
Big Ma threatened (page 7) Mr. Anderson’s ashen face (page 47)
Mama scolded (page 8)
Voice Qualities
Christopher-John murmured (page 8)
Papa replied coldly (page 44)
Mama’s voice softened (page 10)
Mr. Anderson snapped (page 44)
Mr. Anderson exclaimed incredulously (page 45)
SET 2: Pages 24–28
Facial Expressions
Mama’s face hardens (page 24)
Mr. Anderson’s beet-red face (page 25)
Big Ma’s eyes clouded over (page 25)
Mama’s piercing gaze (page 25)
Mr. Anderson looked haughtily (page 25)
Mama’s eyes flashed wildly (page 28)
Voice Qualities
Christopher-John said mournfully (page 24)
Mr. Anderson’s low and menacing voice (page 25)
Mr. Anderson hissed venomously (page 27)

◆ Reading Strategy: Learning to Compare and Contrast

Song of the Trees offers vivid contrasts that students can explore using a two-column compare/contrast
chart. Work with them to begin a chart after they have read novel pages 5–12, when they can compare
Christopher-John and Little Man Logan. Steps for beginning the chart are given below. Students can add
to it as they read further; they can also create additional charts.
• To start, you may want to copy onto the chalkboard the chart on page 21 of this guide. Write
“Christopher-John” and “Little Man” at the heads of the columns.
• Ask students to describe each brother and to include information about their ages, physical appear-
ance, habits, interests, idiosyncrasies, and so on. Encourage students to skim the first part of the
novel to make their descriptions as complete as possible, and to keep a running list as they read
further. Record the information in the columns, or have a volunteer act as recorder.
• Model how you would use the two lists to present contrasting pictures of the brothers.
• Students will find compare/contrasts charts useful for content-area study as well, especially for
science and social studies.

◆ Literary Element: Personification

As suggested by the book title, Mildred Taylor personifies the trees on the Logan land. Individual trees, as
well as the forest, assume human qualities. Cassie and Papa, especially, see the trees as kind, old friends. At
the very end of the book, the up-to-then stern David Logan calls softly to them, “Dear, dear old trees, will
you ever sing again?” Sadly, they give no answer.
 4 Critical Reading Activities for the Works of Mildred Taylor

Explain to students that personification is a type of descriptive language in which an object is given the
qualities or abilities of a person, hence the term personification. Encourage students to think of examples of
Teacher Notes

personification in everyday language, in poetry, and in popular songs. Afterward, discuss the following exam-
ples from the book; encourage students to discover further examples as they read.
“Only the trees of the forest were not gray. They stood dark, almost black, across the dusty road, still
holding the night. A soft breeze stirred, and their voices whispered down to me in a song of morning greet-
ing.” (page 7)
“In the cold of winter when the ground lay frozen, they had sung their frosty ballads of years gone by.
Or on a muggy, sweat-drenched day, their leaves had rippled softly, lazily, like restless green fingers strum-
ming at a guitar, echoing their epic tales.” (page 34)

◆ Especially for ESL Students

Song of the Trees will be easy reading for most middle- and high-school students. The Check Your Compre-
hension questions alert them to key story issues and events. The questions will be especially helpful for your
ESL students and those reading below grade level; encourage students to preview the questions before they
read each section to establish purposes for reading, and to answer the questions as they go along. If writing
is difficult, have students jot down the page numbers of the answers. Then, if possible, meet with them
to discuss the answers before they write.
Because Song of the Trees is short, it will be a good choice for your students learning English. Perhaps,
too, you can enlist the help of a skilled English reader to tape the book so ESL students can listen as they
read along. Other students may benefit from hearing the tape as well.

◆ Classroom Projects
1. Story Graphics Suggest that interested students create a “mood time line” of Song of the Trees. After
marking a length of paper into five sections to represent the five days of the story, students can show the
quiet, easy times with smooth, flowing bands of cool colors like blue, green, and violet. Tense, active
times can be represented by jagged lines in hot oranges, reds, and yellows.
2. Dramatization Have students act out the porch conversation between Big Ma, Mama, and Mr.
Anderson or the forest confrontation between Papa, Mr. Anderson, Tom, and the lumbermen.
3. Further Reading Interested students can read firsthand accounts of the Great Depression in Hard Times
by Studs Terkel (Pantheon, 1970). The book contains short, easy-to-read interviews with people from
many walks of life. Encourage a group of students to read different interviews, and then meet together
to report and discuss what they have learned. Have students relate these readings to events in Mildred
Taylor’s novels.
4. Collecting Oral and Video Histories Mildred Taylor’s story is based on an incident from her father’s
Mississippi childhood. Students may enjoy interviewing older members of their own families to collect
stories about good and bad times. Stories of sacrifice and of standing up for the family are especially mov-
ing. Have the students audio- or video-record the stories; invite them to prepare dramatic oral accounts.
Or, plan a time when students can simply play the tapes for classmates.
5. Compare Taylor’s Books If students have read another book by Mildred Taylor, have them compare it
with Song of the Trees. The compare/contrast chart on page 21 of this guide can be completed in prepara-
tion for a discussion with classmates.
 Synopsis

Teacher Notes
Section 1, pages 5–24
It’s morning at the Logan homestead and we meet six of seven members of this spirited family: the four chil-
dren, Mama, and grandmother Big Ma. The hard times of the Depression have forced Papa to take work
laying railroad track in nearby Louisiana. For the children, the hazy morning sun foretells a day of rural plea-
sures, although for Cassie the anticipation of pleasure is mixed with fear: Is Mama ill? Who has opened the
family mail and stolen $10 that Papa sent home?
The children set off into their forest, but their idyll is cut short. Cassie senses an uneasy silence descend
over the usually melodic forest. Soon the four discover that the largest of the trees are marked with ghostly
white Xs, and they overhear their hateful neighbor Anderson tell his foreman to mark all the trees. Anderson
has secured a lucrative contract for logs and intends to clear-cut the ancient forest.

Section 2, pages 24–36

Anderson meets with Big Ma and offers an insultingly small sum for the trees. When she resists, he suggests
that her son David could have “an accident” that would make him unable to work. Intimidated, Big Ma
agrees to the price and the logging begins immediately. At nightfall, eldest son Stacey is sent to bring Papa
home.
Three days pass. The logging continues and the children are forbidden to go into the forest, but feisty
Little Man defies the order. He rushes into the forest and at the lumbermen.

Section 3, pages 36–48

Anderson pushes the boy away and insists that he leave the area, but Little Man pushes back, initiating a
physical confrontation between the children and the lumbermen that escalates until Papa is heard calling
from a nearby ridge.
During the night, Papa and Stacey have planted dynamite throughout the forest. Now Papa says he
will detonate it if Anderson does not leave. Incensed that a black man dare threaten him, but convinced that
David Logan will make good his threat, Anderson eventually orders his men to leave the damaged forest.

5
Name Date

Check Your Comprehension SONG OF THE TREES

Pause to answer these questions as you read. Your answers will help you remember important story
information.

Section 1, pages 5–24

11. Who is the narrator of the story? How old is she? __________________________________________

12. When and where does the story take place? _______________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________

13. List the seven members of the Logan family, and give the children’s ages. _________________________

14. Where is Papa? Why isn’t he living at home? ______________________________________________

15. How does Cassie feel about the forest? ___________________________________________________

16. Who is Mr. Anderson? What does he want from the Logans? __________________________________

(continued)

Copyright ©2000 J. Weston Walch, Publisher 6 Critical Reading Activities for the Works of Mildred Taylor
Name Date

Check Your Comprehension (continued) SONG OF THE TREES

Section 2, pages 24–36

7. What does Mr. Anderson do to get what he wants? Why does Big Ma at first refuse to accept Mr.
Anderson’s offer? ____________________________________________________________________

8. What does Cassie do when Big Ma agrees to Anderson’s demand? ______________________________

_________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________

Section 3, pages 36–48

9. What happens when Mr. Anderson pushes Little Man? ______________________________________

_________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________

10. Describe what Papa does to stop the lumbering. ____________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________

11. What do the lumbermen think of David Logan? ___________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________

12. Why does Papa refuse Mr. Anderson’s offer of $100 for the cut logs? ____________________________
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Copyright ©2000 J. Weston Walch, Publisher 7 Critical Reading Activities for the Works of Mildred Taylor
Name Date

Reading Strategy: Learning to Compare and Contrast SONG OF THE TREES

As you read Song of the Trees, you will find that the author presents people and situations in ways that make
it easy to see their differences. She does this to help readers understand and remember her message. You
can become more aware of the contrasts she presents by completing a compare/contrast chart as you read.
Here’s how:
1. After you’ve read the first section of the book, skim the Comparison Pairs in the box below. Choose the
one that interests you most.
2. Copy the underlined names from your Comparison Pair at the top of the columns.
3. As you read the book, look for descriptions and actions that show how the two are different. Make notes
in the columns. Occasionally, reread the whole chart to help keep the differences in mind.
5. After you’ve finished the novel, review your information and add anything you missed. Refer to the chart
to write a comparison or to prepare an oral presentation.

Apply the Strategy: Create a comparison chart any time you want to clearly see the differences in what
you’re reading. The charts are especially useful for keeping track of facts and understanding concepts in
science and social studies.

Comparison Pairs
• Compare Little Man with Christopher-John.
• Compare Mr. Anderson’s view of the trees with Cassie’s view of them.
• Compare Mr. Anderson with his foreman, Tom.
• Compare Big Ma’s response to Anderson’s demands with Papa’s response.

Copyright ©2000 J. Weston Walch, Publisher 8 Critical Reading Activities for the Works of Mildred Taylor
Name Date

Graphic Organizer: Compare/Contrast Chart SONG OF THE TREES

Copyright ©2000 J. Weston Walch, Publisher 9 Critical Reading Activities for the Works of Mildred Taylor
Name Date

Discussion Questions SONG OF THE TREES

Use examples from the book to answer the following questions about Song of the Trees. Your teacher may ask
you to write essay answers or to participate in an oral discussion. The space after each question is for you to
make notes for either an essay or a discussion.
1. What did you learn about relationships between blacks and whites in 1930s rural Mississippi? Give
specific information from the book to back up your ideas.

2. Do you think that Mr. Anderson had anything to do with the theft of $10 sent by Papa from Louisiana?
If so, what gives you that impression?

3. On the morning Papa arrives, Little Man disobeys his mother and dashes into the forest. Soon after, the
children are involved in hitting and punching the lumbermen. Do you think they will be punished for
their behavior? Why or why not?
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4. Give examples that show how the author contrasts Anderson’s view of the trees with the Logans’ view.
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5. On page 49, Papa tells Mr. Anderson, “It don’t make me any difference if I die today or tomorrow. Just
as long as I die right.” What does Papa mean by “dying right”? How is his attitude different from Big
Ma’s? Why do you think it is different? What’s most important to Pa? What’s most important to Big Ma?
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Copyright ©2000 J. Weston Walch, Publisher 10 Critical Reading Activities for the Works of Mildred Taylor
Name Date

Writing Assignments SONG OF THE TREES

Here are three ideas for writing about Song of the Trees. Use the blank lines under each one to jot notes or list
steps you will take to prepare for writing. Use separate sheets or your journal for your actual drafts.

1. Choose one set of terms below. Reread the passages from which they were taken to get their meaning
from context. Turn to a dictionary if you’re unsure. Now write a new scene that includes at least four of
the terms. Your scene can involve the novel’s characters, characters from TV, or people in your own life.
SET 1: looked suspiciously (page 12), eyes slid blissfully shut (page 10), fussed (page 7), threatened
(page 7), scolded (page 8), murmured (page 8), voice softened (page 10)
SET 2: face hardens (page 24), beet-red face (page 25), eyes clouded over (page 25), piercing gaze (page
25), looked haughtily (page 25), eyes flashed wildly (page 28), said mournfully (p 24), low and menacing
voice (page 25), hissed venomously (page 27)
SET 3: looked woefully (page 40), eyes went wide (page 43), smiled cunningly (page 44), exploded,
his face beet-red again (44), ashen face (page 47), replied coldly (page 44), snapped (page 44), exclaimed
incredulously (page 45)
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2. Which member of the Logan family is your favorite? Choose one family member and write a character
profile. Or, compare two family members. Start by creating a compare/contrast chart.
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3. Cassie Logan loves the trees on her family’s land. She hears them sing and believes they hold the memo-
ries of the past. Think of something that means a great deal to you or that you feel connected to. Do you
love trees, sunlight, a special chair? Can you imagine your object helping you as a loving person would
help you? Jot down several ways in which your loved object is like a person, and then develop your notes
into a paragraph or poem.
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Copyright ©2000 J. Weston Walch, Publisher 11 Critical Reading Activities for the Works of Mildred Taylor
 Answer Key
Song of Trees
Comprehension Questions
1. The story narrator is Cassie Logan, who is eight
years old when the story takes place.
2. The story takes place over five summer days in
1933, on the Logan family land in rural
Mississippi.
3. The Logan children are son Stacey (age 11),
daughter Cassie (age 8), son Christopher-John
(age 7), and Little Man (age 6). The adults are
Mary (Mama), David (Papa), and Caroline (Big
Ma, grandmother) Logan.
4. Low cotton prices in the Depression forced Papa
to take work laying railroad track in Louisiana to
earn extra money.
5. Cassie has personal relationships with the old
trees in the forest. She greets them as friends and
believes they sing to her.
6. Mr. Anderson is the white neighbor of the
Logans. He wants to cut the trees in the Logans’
forest and sell them.
Graphic Organizer: Compare/Contrast Chart
COMPARISON OF CHRISTOPHER-JOHN AND LITTLE MAN LOGAN
Christopher-John Logan
seven years old
short and pudgy
loves to eat
takes life slowly—doesn’t like to run
proud of his father
fearful
strong
13
7. Anderson meets with Big Ma and offers her $65
for the trees. When she hesitates to accept his
offer, he suggests that David, Big Ma’s son, may
have “an accident” and become unable to bring
in money. Fearful for her son’s safety, Big Ma
relents and agrees to the lumbering.
8. Cassie cries out and pleads with Big Ma to refuse
the offer. She says she will personally protect the
trees from the lumbermen.
9. Little Man pushes Anderson back, then gets a
stick and hits him in the leg.
10. Papa set sticks of dynamite throughout the for-
est, hidden by dirt and leaves. He holds a deto-
nator and threatens to blow up the forest if
Anderson does not stop cutting trees and leave.
11. The lumbermen think that David is proud and a
little crazy.
12. Papa cares more for his self-respect than for the
money.
Little Man Logan
six years old
very small
finicky dresser
careful to keep himself clean
argumentative
proud of his father
strong-willed
quick to anger
fast and surefooted
14 Critical Reading Activities for the Works of Mildred Taylor

Discussion Questions 4. The Logans view the trees as family friends, sen-
tries who stand guard over their precious land.
1. Blacks and whites lived side by side in 1930s And the family has a strong sense of the human
rural Mississippi. The townspeople in Taylor’s history that has taken place in the forest: gather-
story know each other well. Anderson knows ings of Native Americans and of black slaves
that Big Ma, not her son David, owns the land, fleeing their owners. For Anderson, the trees are
and that David is away working. The lumber- simply a cash crop, to be harvested and delivered
men know that Big Ma will balk at an agree- to fulfill a lucrative contract.
ment with Anderson and that David Logan will
be even more resistant. Anderson, representing 5. Papa seems to be saying that “dying right” is
the worst of the racist white society, treats the dying with his dignity intact, within his own
Logans like controllable children; what he isn’t code of honor. It doesn’t matter to him that oth-
able to get with paternalistic demands and lec- ers may see his acts as “a little crazy.” Papa’s atti-
turing, he believes he can get with threats of tude contrasts with that of Big Ma, who is pre-
violence. He criticizes Mary Logan for rearing pared to sacrifice the trees to keep her son from
impolite children; in his moment of greatest danger. Papa’s safety will also ensure the family’s
anger, he says to David Logan, “You know what income and their ability to stay independent.
could happen to you, boy? . . . Threatening a
white man like this?”
For their part, the Logan children have learned
that family members must protect each other
from the abusive whites. Awareness of their
oppression is evident in the anger just below the
surface—and quick to erupt—in all the Logans,
except Big Ma.
2. The author does not say that Anderson is
responsible for the theft of the money, but she
does reveal that Anderson knows David sends
money home and approximately how much.
We know that leaving the family short of cash
might cause Big Ma to be more receptive to his
demands, as would his threat of an “accident”
that could jeopardize David’s ability to work.
3. The Logan adults would probably have mixed
feelings about punishing the children. On the
one hand, their behavior opened the way to
beatings at Anderson’s hands and may provoke
violence against the family in the future. On the
other hand, their behavior is not much different
than the adults’: Mama herself speaks up to
Anderson, and David Logan risks his life in the
confrontation.