Julius Lester and Jerry Pinkney's warm, humorous retelling of a popular African-American folk ballad.
When John Henry was born the birds, bears, rabbits, and even a unicorn came to see him. He grew so fast, he burst right through the porch roof, and laughed so loud, he scared the sun! Soon John Henry is swinging two huge sledgehammers to build roads, pulverizing boulders, and smashing rocks to smithereens. He's stronger than ten men and can dig through a mountain faster than a steam drill. Nothing can stop John Henry, and his courage stays with us forever."This is a tall tale and heroic myth, a celebration of the human spirit . . . The story is told with rhythm and wit, humor and exageration, and with a heart-catching immediacy that connects the human and the natural world." -Booklist, starred review"
Julius Lester was born in 1939 in St. Louis, Missouri. When he was two, he and his family moved to Kansas. As a teenager, he lived in Nashville, Tennessee, spending most of his summers at his grandmother's farm in Arkansas. Growing up, Julius wanted to be a musician. He was not a good writer and Julius never dreamed he'd become an award-winning author. In 1960 he graduated from Fisk University with a B.A. in English and became politically active in the civil rights movement. In 1961 he moved to New York, where he started writing books for adults. At the suggestion of his publisher, he also began writing children's books. He currently lives in Belchertown, MA.
