Taylor inherited the gift, indeed the responsibility, of storytelling from her own family, especially her father, whom she refers to as a “master storyteller,” and many of her novels incorporate real-life family events and characters. The critic Mary Turner Harper feels that Taylor’s books are generated in much the same way that Alex Hailey created material for Roots with “faction,” a blend of fact and fiction. This combination creates“a fiction that is functional--one that enables young readers to experience a world sometimes alien to them but, at the same time, one that allows them to establish a kinship with characters in their own age group who must confront challenges of growing up in a less than ideal world.”

The outside world may have been frightening, even hostile, but the warmth and close family bonds evident in the Logan family are indeed ideal. Author Chris Crowe often notes in his new study, Presenting Mildred D. Taylor, that no matter what your own family background may be, it is impossible to read Taylor’s work and not long for the familial closeness of her fictious family. This closeness is even more poignant when, after even the briefest study of Taylor’s life, one realizes how much of it is based in reality. None of this is lost on Crowe, who paints a gentle and loving portrait of a powerful artist who has made a lasting impression on young adult literature with her sensitive portrayal of family life and chillingly detailed historical accounts of racism in the American South.

This volume is especially important since Taylor values and protects her privacy and seldom grants interviews or appears in public. Crowe, however, has been fortunate enough to have her full cooperation on this book. Here are the never-before-told stories of Taylor’s background, childhood, family history, and political experience as a member of the Black Studies program at the University of Colorado (which she helped to found) in the late 1960’s. It is from these experiences that she takes her stories, and using the storytelling talents of her family, brings to life the characters that came alive in her own head when she was a child. As readers we benefit from the product of Taylor’s life, her writing; now Presenting Mildred D. Taylor allows us to explore the process as well.