Review: Best Shot in the West by Patricia C. McKissack and Fredrick L. McKissack, Jr.

Nat Love, or “Deadwood Dick,” was among the greatest cowboys who ever lived. Daring and dangerous when he needed to be, Nat was a natural at breaking broncs and shooting straight. A freed slave from Tennessee, Nat journeyed west to find work that rewarded his abilities.

A graphic novel, Best Shot in the West, is a dramatized version of Nat’s story mostly adapted from his autobiography. Is this fiction or nonfiction? Nat was a real cowboy. But the author’s note explains they dramatized certain scenes for the sake of the story’s flow. The inside cover describes the book as historical fiction while the Library of Congress subject heading inside says “Biography.” My library has it under Biography as well. It may be that the availability of factual materials on Nat and legends and myths about him make it difficult to create a totally factual story of Nat’s life. Ultimately, I am unsure but still enjoyed the story.

Like comic books, the story and illustrations are broken into panels with speech bubbles and blocks. Illustrator DuBurke’s paintings are muted but dramatically portray cattle stampedes and shootouts. The backgrounds are colorful while people and objects in the foreground are greyish. It’s an interesting technique but sometimes I wanted a clearer picture of people’s faces.

So, we all know that Hollywood tends to skew reality and Wild West films are no exception. But the exact ways that movies skew things may allude us...we know things are inaccurate but we’re not sure how exactly. This is the second book I’ve read about men from the Wild West and they were both African American and had amazing life stories, legends of their time, and  worthy of movies of their own. I would totally watch a movie about Nat Love. While reasons for Indian/Cowboy conflict are alluded to, especially when Nat is captured by an unusual tribe, adults may need to point out the complexities of why Indians conducted raids and why they captured Nat (instead of killing him) as the story is focused only on Nat’s perspective as a loyal cowboy.

Best Shot in the West is a story for kids interested in cowboys, horses, outlaws and crack shots. I recommend this story since it provides an important perspective on what it took to be a cowboy and what type of people cowboys were. This book counts towards the POC Reading Challenge!

Publisher: Chronicle Books, 2012     Pages: 133     
Full Title: Best Shot in the West: The Adventures of Nat Love
Illustrator: Randy DuBurke
Rating: 3.5 Stars     Source: Public Library

Review: Bad News for Outlaws by Vaunda Micheaux Nelson

This book was awesome! Gun fights, chases, escapes! Indians, cowboys and slaves. Hardship, justice and honor. It’s the Wild West folks and this is the true story of a slave who became a U.S. deputy Marshal. His name is Reeves. Bass Reeves. And he is Bad News for Outlaws!

This is nonfiction done right. I loved the art work (looks like oil paintings) and the story was fascinating. Both totally captured the spirit of the old West. Many of the text blocks look like they are printed on yellowed paper. The font looks Western, too, big and bold. R. Gregory Christie’s illustrations capture the emotion of each moment being described. Bass’ gaze is piercing. There’s no messing with that man. 

This is well researched book and it shows. There are many amazing anecdotes pieced together from historical records. There are extra resources in the back including a glossary of Western terms used in the book, a timeline, a further reading list and much more.

I was completely captivated with Bass’ story. Although it’s aimed at 2nd-5th grade readers, if you know anyone who enjoys all things Western I urge you to put this book in their hands. This title counts towards the POC Reading Challenge! Well, this was a hard review to write. I just wanted to use the word "awesome" over and over! 

Publisher: Carolrhoda, 2009     Pages: 40     Illustrator: R. Gregory Christie
Full Title: Bad News for Outlaws: The Remarkable Life of Bass Reeves, Deputy U.S. Marshal
Rating: 5 Stars     Source: IC Public Library

Review: Snowflake Bentley by Jacqueline Briggs Martin

From gently falling flakes and flurries, to swirling gusts and mounting drifts, snow-falls always look beautiful. One of the first crafts I remember doing in school is creating cut-out snowflakes. Sometimes a flake will stick to a window and you can see it’s sort of pokey looking. But then it blows away, or worse, melts.

This beautifully illustrated children’s book chronicles the work of Willie Bentley, the man who showed us the snowflake. Bentley loved snow so much he dedicated his free time to studying it. He perfected the photographic technique needed to capture snowflakes on film so that the whole world could see how beautiful they are. He knew that seeing a single flake under a microscope wasn’t good enough. He wanted their crystal-like beauty to last and be enjoyed by all.

Illustrator Mary Azarian’s woodcuts set a perfect tone for Martin’s text. Together, they remind me a time gone by. A time my grandparents knew. A time that can still be found in the quiet of a gentle snow-fall. I enjoyed how the text was displayed with more biographical or technical details in sidebars and the general story-line at the bottom. As a reluctant reader in my youth, I really liked books like this (thinking Magic School Bus) where the text was broken up. I could choose what to read and keep moving on if I thought it was “too much text.” I enjoyed going back later and discovering more parts to the story.

As winter comes to a close and the last of the snow is melting remember Snowflake Bentley’s passionate efforts. I know snow can seem a bother. But if you didn’t this year, remember next winter to take a moment to enjoy the beauty that is a snowflake. 

Publisher: Houghton Mifflin, 1998     Pages: 32
Rating: 4.5 Stars     Source: Christmas gift! Thanks, Mom!

American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House by Jon Meacham

To fulfill my reading quest for the seventh President of the United States, Andrew Jackson, I chose a substantial and more recent text. I was really excited to read about this dynamic president known as Old Hickory. I wanted to hear about his gallantry at New Orleans during the War of 1812 as well as his coercion and cruelties towards Native Americans. For some reason I thought the head title American Lion meant this text would delve into Jackson’s rough temperament. And it does touch on these subjects; however, the subtitle, in the White House, should have told me that this text focuses on the inner life at the White House during his presidency and not as much on pre or post White House events. In fact, much of the information was about Jackson’s family and how it played an important role in his moods and politics. I became bored with his niece, Emily, whose ideas on who was or was not respectable practically lead to the breakup of Jackson’s cabinet. His family life was important to politics but I felt the text lingered on these issues for far too long. I wanted more about the war hero and less about his family. I got hardly a paragraph on the War of 1812 and am disappointed by that. The text does deal fairly about Jackson’s managing of the Indians and I felt satisfied on that point even if it was sort of brief. Jackson’s issues with the U.S. Bank drag on forever as Jackson became consumed with crushing the institution. Jackson did face serious adversaries from within that threatened the Union which he carefully dealt with to avoid (or postpone) civil war. The text shows how Jackson singlehandedly increased the power of the Executive by the force of his will. So, he did exercise shrewdness in these respects.


I think the text would be more accurately called American Father: Jackson in the White House since Meacham constantly refers to him as a father and how Jackson referred to himself as a father to his supporters, extended family and even Native Americans. This bio hardly touched on the aspects that made Jackson a lion. We rarely see him on the attack during his time as president (save the bank issue) but more as a protective father figure. The prose has a tendency to wander. In one paragraph we hear about Emily and her parties and in the next, Clay and Calhoun’s plots to undermine the president. Subjects are not well weaved together. On the other hand, this text does give the reader a look at the intimate life of Jackson during his two terms. It tells us what it was like for family who lived with a president subject to swings of temperament and a need to control his surroundings. Ultimately, I wish I chose a bio that encompassed Jackson’s entire life to get a better view of his lion-like image. I may have to find a text with a chapter or two that focuses on pre-White House Jackson to get my Battle of New Orleans fix.
Publisher: Random House, 2008     Source: IC Public Library
Rating: 2.5 Stars                                          Pages: 361, 483 with acknowledgments, notes and index

John Quincy Adams by Robert V. Remini

After a two year break (mostly because of school), my quest to read biographies/autobiographies of each president in chronological order continues with Prez number 6.

This is the second biography from “The American Presidents” collection I’ve read. They are concise and compact bios with enough substance to be informative without getting into the nitty-gritty details. This makes the series nice for those with general interest who don’t want to commit to a detail oriented (and much thicker) bio. This text was exactly what I was looking for. Having read David McCullough’s excellent biography on John Adams, Sr. (all 752 pages), I felt I knew enough about JQA that I didn’t need minute details of his youth repeated to me. Considering JQA kept lengthy journals nearly all his life, I wish there had been even more quotes from him. Other than that, I’ve no complaints with Remini's text.

John Quincy was a genius in several areas, perhaps most notably language. His command at an early age of languages (including French, German and Latin) gave him a great advantage in foreign countries in which he represented the United States for many years. His skill as a foreign diplomat was a great asset to a country that desperately needed foreign recognition as a sovereign power. There’s much more to this man but I’ll let you read his bio for yourself. =)

As always, reading Presidential bios is a great way to learn about U.S. history, the creation of political parties, early journalism and different interpretations of the Constitution throughout time not to mention what early life in America was like. Bios make two-hundred-year-old history come to life by revealing how those lives were lived. How did Mrs. Adams like the White House? What was family life like for a Presidential dynasty? Did you know JQA swam in the Potomac on a regular basis? Presidents are unique people to say the least and John Quincy was no exception.
Publisher: Times Books/ Holt, 2002      Source: IC Public Library
Rating: 3.5 Stars                                   Pages: 155 (172 to the index)