Taylor was born in Jackson, Mississippi but lived there only a short amount of time, then moved to Toledo, Ohio, where she spent most of her childhood. Now she lives in Colorado with her daughter. She has expressed her views on the Great Depression as an economical crisis, as well as slavery.

Many of her works are based on stories of her family that she heard while growing up. She has stated that these anecdotes became very clear in her mind, and in fact, once she realized that adults talked about the past, “I began to visualize all the family who had once known the land, and I felt as if I knew them, too …” Taylor has talked about how much history was in the stories; some stories took place during times of slavery and some post-slavery.

Taylor’s most famous book is Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry. In 1977, the book won the Newbery Medal. Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry is the middle book, chronologically, in the Logans series that also includes titles such as The Land, Song of the Trees, Let the Circle Be Unbroken, and The Road to Memphis.[2] Her collective contributions to children’s literature resulted in her being awarded the inaugural NSK Neustadt Prize for Children’s Literature in 2003.