347 minutes + 50 minutes =

397 minutes.

The Gold Cadillac by Mildred D. Taylor reads like another short story (it's only 43 pages long- ideal for last- minute homework assignments!). Having read Taylor's The Land last year, and struck by descriptions of injustice both subtle and graphic, I began this story of an African- American girl's father, his swanky new ride, and the family trip down to Mississippi with trepidation- is everyone going to make it back alive? I will say that Taylor tells the story simply, and with subtlety. Taylor's young narrator provides a naive child's perspective, similar to what that of the reader might be in a similar situation. Yet the story is not an enigma- the source of the family's at first inexplicable unease is explained. I was somewhat confused, however, whether the narrator was the older or younger daughter- the pictures tend to feature the younger daughter in the foreground, but without the pictures she would not be easy to distinguish.