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From School Library Journal

September 13, 2024

Gr 8 Up-Steinbeck received the Pulitzer Prize in 1939 for this saga of the Joad family-his first full-length novel-based on the historic migration of poor farmers from the Midwest to the West Coast during the Depression. With their meager savings, the Joads, forced off their land and ancestral home in Oklahoma by drought, crop failure, and debt, buy a worn-out old truck for the long journey that son Al, 16, proudly takes responsibility for as lead driver and mechanic. Big brother Tom (who's just served four years in prison on a manslaughter charge) channels his fiery energy into helping the family get to California, even though he breaks parole to do it. They love him and need him, but fear for his safety and know deep down his uncertain fate jeopardizes their own. This is just one of the tensions typical of Steinbeck's deeply emotional and gripping classic, a tale readers won't soon forget. The novel develops around the actions of the family members as they try to survive and maintain some semblance of human dignity in such squalid surroundings. The work provides material for the study of theme, characterization, the use of symbolism, and allegory. These topics should stimulate student response to a variety of issues, among them the plight of the downtrodden, man's inhumanity to man, and the strength of the human spirit. VERDICT Students will enjoy this harsh but beautiful story of a family in crisis bound together by their belief in their right to a better life.-Georgia Christgau & NCTE Database

Copyright 2024 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

From AudioFile Magazine

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize in l940, this famous protest novel is a natural for audio. The story is told almost entirely in the country vernacular of the destitute workers of the 1930's--some 300,000 strong--who had been driven from their farms and were pouring into California to face hunger, squalor and humiliation. (An inept narrator, reading their dialogue, could easily have made them sound like the Beverly Hillbillies.) Instead, Dylan Baker's sensitive interpretation has given them the dignity--even the nobility--that Steinbeck intended. He has also avoided another serious pitfall: overdramatizing some of Steinbeck's speeches in the last half of the book, avoiding what the Joads called "a preacher voice." The listener is hardly aware of occasional lapses into sentimental prose as Steinbeck delivers his many impassioned sermons against the selfishness and greed of the rich. Altogether, this is an outstanding performance; John Steinbeck would have relished it. J.C. Winner of AUDIOFILE Earphones Award (c)AudioFile, Portland, Maine