I liked Mildred D. Taylor's The Land, a YA novel that bills its as a prequel to Newberry Medal Winner Roll of Thunder; Her My Cry, which in a matter of minutes goes on my wish list at B&N.com. The basic premise of The Land is good. The narrator, Paul, is a teenager, the son of a southern landowner and one of his slaves. Paul has an older sister, and the father has raised the two of them alongside his three sons from a marriage to a white woman—alongside as much as the times would allow, the times being a few years after the Civil War.
Paul has the misfortune to be light-skinned enough to be able to pass for white, which he has no interest in doing. Once he leaves his father's home, he wants to make it on his own as a man who is half black, half white. His primary goal is to own a piece of land he discovers while moving from job to job. His race is an impediment to that ever happening.
My one complaint with the book was that in the early part of Paul's quest, everything seemed to be too easy for him. He has a job as a carpenter; his work is respected and sells well. He meets the perfect young lady. He's able to find a white man who is willing to sell Paul some land if he clears it so the owner can sell the lumber. At that point I started thinking, okay, let's have some problems here. Ms Taylor has her protagonist up in a tree; it's time for rocks to be thrown. And, sure enough, a few pages later the rocks arrive. Everything goes wrong, and for me at least the last half of the book is pure page-turner.
If you're interested in Reconstruction history and/or race relations, I strongly recommend this book.
