One of the most influential African American writers, Mildred D. Taylor, released a new book this year entitled “All the Days Past, All the Days to Come”. This was Taylor’s tenth novel about the Logan’s, an African American family who live in the South during a time of extreme racism. Taylor’s writing incorporates what it’s like to be an African American person living in the deep South and, later, in the North by drawing on her own experiences as a child and young adult. Her first novel “Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry” is her most famous one and is the novel that starts off the Logan family saga.

 In “All the Days Past, All the Days to Come” we follow Cassie Logan who is the only daughter in the Logan family along with her three brothers. Cassie’s two younger brothers, Christopher-John and Clayton Chester, have just been called to serve in World War II or “the white man’s war” as they call it. They get deployed to Europe to fight while Cassie’s older brother Stacey decides that he’s had enough of Mississippi and moves his family to Toledo, Ohio in hopes of more opportunity for his children. Cassie decides to move with them and, from there, most of the novel is no longer based in the South which is much different than any of the other novels Taylor has written. 

The novel spans from about the 1940s to the 1960s, all the while following Cassie through love, heartbreak, injustice, racism, family, and perseverance. She moves to multiple places in the United States hoping to find a place where she can be accepted instead of judged, yet finds that most people just aren’t ready to accept African Americans being seen as equal. Throughout the novel Cassie fights against the racism seen so clearly against her and hopes that one day her people won’t have to live in fear just for wanting to be equal. 

I would give this book a 4 out of 5 stars. The writing style is excellent and at the times of racism being displayed, Cassie’s anger is shared with the reader. There were a few instances where I thought Cassie was being unreasonable and that was irritating to have to read as she seems overly independent and unwilling to ask for help from anyone, but by the end of the novel she seems to realize that she can’t do everything alone. Overall Cassie seemed like a passionate young woman who wanted to make things better for her race and it was evident by the author’s writing style that she wrote this part of Cassie as a reflection of herself. If you like books that center around people fighting racism or what it’s like to be African American in a time of racism, I highly suggest that you pick this book up!