NEWBERY MEDAL AWARD BOOK COVER
87
●
MAX GINSBURG.
“Roll Of Thunder, Hear My Cry.”
Oil on board. 610x394 mm; 24x15
1
/
2
inches. Cover art for the book by Mildred D.Taylor,
New York: Puffin, 1991. Signed in image, lower right. Tape residue along edges and a
3
/
4
-
inch chip to the paint along bottom edge, publisher’s printing proof of full cover taped to
verso.
[8,000/10,000]
Roll of Thunder was already a 1977 Newbery Award winner as well as a New York Times Book
Review Best of Children’s Books and a National Book Award Nominee when Taylor specifically
requested Ginsburg to create a new cover for the 1991 re-release of her best-selling young adult novel.
A moving tale of an African American family living in Depression-era Mississippi who is faced with
prejudice and discrimination which the children struggle to understand. Of this image, which became
an iconic work of cover art, Ginsburg said “In this dramatic scene I tried to illustrate the courage and
vulnerability of these heroic children.”
