Sounder is a young adult novel written by author William Armstrong. The book was published in 1969, telling the story of an unnamed African-American boy and his family, who suffer from hunger and poverty.
Interestingly, Armstrong does choose to tell us the name of the family dog, the eponymous Sounder. As well as being vague about the identities of the characters, Armstrong does not detail the setting of the story either. After winning the Newbery Award in 1970, sounder was made into a film in 1972, starring Cicely Tyson and Paul Winfield. This has helped this story to reach wider audiences, increasing its popularity.
William Armstrong was an American children's author, born in 1911. Sounder is his most well-known book, which he was awarded the Newbery Medal for. The novel was successful and acclaimed by critics at the time of publication; however, since then critics have questioned whether Armstrong himself was the best person to tell this story as he was not African-American himself.
