Best of
Banned-Books

1989

Roll of Thunder, Hear my Cry: By Mildred D. Taylor


Carmela M. Krueser - 1989
    TaylorNewbery Award-winning author, Mildred D. Taylor, was born in Jackson, Mississippi, and grew up in Toledo, Ohio. After graduating from the University of Toledo, she spent two years in Ethiopia with the Peace Corps teaching English and history. Returning to the United States, Ms. Taylor entered the University of Colorado's School of Journalism, from which she received her Master of Arts degree. As a member of the Black Student Alliance, she worked with students and University officials in structuring a Black Studies program at the University. She currently lives in Colorado."From as far back as I can remember, my father taught me a different history from the one I learned in school. By the fireside in our Ohio home and in Mississippi, where I was born and where my father's family had lived since the days of slavery, I had heard about our past. It was not an organized history beginning in a certain year, but one told through stories--stories about great-grandparents and aunts and uncles and others that stretched back through the years of slavery and beyond. It was a history of ordinary people, some brave, some not so brave, but basically people who had done nothing more spectacular than survive in a society designed for their destruction."

Chinese Handcuffs


Chris Crutcher - 1989
    To keep his mind and body occupied, he trains intensely for the Ironman Triathalon. But outside of practice, his life seems to be falling apart. Then Dillon finds a confidante in Jennifer, a star high school basketball player who's hiding her own set of destructive secrets. Together they must find the courage to confront their demons -- before its too late. This ALA Best Book for Young Adults is now available with a stunning new look. Two star athletes find the courage to confront painful memories in this gritty, realistic tale of friendship and healing.

Soft Target: How the Indian Intelligence Service Penetrated Canada


Zuhair Kashmeri - 1989
    They offer key details from the trial of Ripudaman Singh Malik and Ajaib Singh Bagri that took place in a specially-built Vancouver courtroom, leads that were not followed up, and more details of India's intelligence service's clandestine interference in Canada. They explain how their own prediction that justice would not be found because of a botched investigation came true, and that only a public inquiry will offer closure to the families of the victims.