This is another Mildred D. Taylor book, and both fifth grade classes are hooked on her books. Here’s a chance for those of you who are hooked, as well as those of you who haven’t yet read her books, to read my favorite of her books. Why is it my favorite, you ask? This books grabs you from the first line, “I loved my daddy. I loved my brothers, too. But in the end it was Mitchell Thomas and I who were more like brothers, with a bond that couldn’t be broken.” Wouldn’t you want to know why?
Ms. Taylor has taken stories that she heard, while sitting at her family’s dining room table and listening to her father tell family stories, and she has woven them into a book that tells about how a man, born to an African-American slave and her master, sets a goal of purchasing land in Mississippi. Sounds simple? Not really, because in the 1880s, which is when the story takes place, Mississippi is a segregated state, and an African-American man cannot borrow money from a bank. So, how will he get the money he needs to buy his land?
So begins Paul-Edward’s effort to earn the money he needs to buy the land that represents what his mother wanted him to have, something of his own. More obstacles appear than you can imagine, and yet Paul-Edward never gives up. Such perserverance! Read the book and find out whether Paul achieves his dream. Perhaps you will cry at the end, just like I have for the past eleven years! That’s right. Each year, when I read this book with my students, I cry several times!! This is the best book I’ve ever read!!
by Barbara Schmidt, Room 13
The Sequoia Times 
I have to admit that I read your review before we got to the Manhood part of The Land with Ms. Betty. I’m glad you wrote this because I never really understood why Paul needed money until now. Plus, your summary is way more descriptive than the one on the back of the book- also, I learned that you cry every year! I actually think that’s really sweet. Thank you for writing this and the heartbreaking Devil’s Arithmetic!