Choice Book Report

Let the Circle Be Unbroken
Mildred Taylor

Part 1


I read the book Let the Circle Be Unbroken by Mildred Taylor. The main character of the book is Cassie Logan. In the beginning she is 10 years old, but in the end she's 11. She lives with her mom, Mary Logan, dad, David Logan, brothers, Stacey, Christopher-John, and Little Man Logan. Her grandma, who they call Big Ma, and Mr.Morrison. Mr.Morrison isn't related to them, but he lives in a cottage on their land and considers them family.




I think Cassie can be very nosy. She wants to know what's going on and what people are doing. Cassie follows Stacey around when he's with his friends, and butts into their conversations. Once in the book Stacey was with Moe talking about girls and Cassie decides to follow along without them knowing. After awhile she just starts talking to them thinking she's part of the conversation. Another time Cassie asked her dad what was wrong with Wordell. Wordell doesn't talk very much and is friends with a guy named Joe. The author doesn't exactly tell you that there's something wrong with Joe, but you can guess that he has some sort of mental disability. Her dad tells her that there is nothing wrong with him and he is just perfectly fine the way he is.


Besides being nosy, Cassie is very brave and courageous. When people are in trouble or need help she's there. Stacey decides to go to T.J.'s trial, which is dangerous because he'd get a whipping from his dad and there are a lot of white people. Racism was really bad during the Depression. Cassie said if he was going she was going. White people almost spot them on the white part of town. They used a white bathroom and drinking fountain. Once they yelled and thought the people in the courtroom could hear them. Even after all that happened she stay wanted to stay.


Another part in the story when Cassie was being courageous was when a white man threw a bottle at a black man. Cassie's friend was running towards the white man and she knew what was going to happen, so she ran after him to stop him. While she's running there's chaos all around her. Mr.Morrison stops her and goes after her friend instead.


Cassie and her brothers find a man beaten very badly. They wanted to take him somewhere to get him help, but if they brought him then they might think it was them who had beaten the man because they were black. Instead, they thought of different ways to get him help and one of them was to get their white friend who lived nearby. They had to sneak up and try to find him quickly before the man died and before they got caught. If you want to look up to someone who is brave and courageous, you should look up to Cassie.



 Part 2


I think the point of view in the story is very important. The story is told from Cassie's point of view. She describes what she thinks things look like, what she thinks things will look like, what she wants, what she thinks about people and other things, and what's going on. If it was told from any other point of view it would be a totally different story. When Cassie, Uncle Hammer, and Papa first meet Jake Willis this is what she thought, "The grin was still on his face, but there was something in his tone which made me uncomfortable." That was her first impression and it stayed that way thought the whole book. It could've been a lot different for Uncle Hammer, who was talking to Jake Willis. Uncle Hammer could have thought that Jake was just curious or was trying to get him angry or annoyed.


In other parts when Cassie saw Stacey after months she described how he looked and how happy she was to see him. If it were in Stacey's point of view we would've know what it was like for him and Moe and how he felt when he saw his family. Instead which just know what he told us.


I think Cassie's point of view was chosen because if it was any one older they would know why things are happening like they are in the book and if it was any one younger they wouldn't understand. David needs to go back to the railroad to make more money to pay the taxes. Stacey, Mama, Big Ma, and Uncle Hammer understand this, but Cassie wants to know why he can't just stay this one year. Well this one year the government decides that farmers and plantation owners need to plow and percentage of their cotton to try to bring the depression back up. Christopher-John and Little Man don't understand taxes or government at all, and that's mostly what the book is about besides the racism!


One touching part of the book where you really felt what Cassie was feeling was when the government was coming around telling land owners to plow up another part of their cotton because they supposedly made a mistake. Cassie, Big Ma, and her two younger brothers were at the Turner's when the government came and told them they had to plow it up. This was the first year in a very long time that the Turner's had a very good crop and they had to plow it up. They wanted so badly to get off that land. Moe started freaking out and crying. His dad was very disappointed too. All Cassie thought was that she wanted to cry too.

That is why I think Cassie's point of view is important.