The Story of Nat Love (Stories of the Forgotten West)

Grade 1-3?This oversized picture book is taken, at least in part, from Love's autobiography (Ayer, 1968). The tall-tale bravado is here, but in his own account, Love never lost sight that he was a "colored cowboy," newly freed from slavery in Reconstruction America. Bold and brassy, he nevertheless lived to the age of 70 and wrote his own fanciful story when he was in his early 50s. Miller's simplified text is serviceable if racially antiseptic, with the requisite number of exclamation points to accompany the hyperbole. The story jerks along from one colorful incident to the next, but young readers will hardly notice or mind. Bryant's watercolors succeed in providing colorful background sets but disappoint in the details; the foreground action is only adequate. Nevertheless, this book will help to fill a glaring void in Wild West folklore. Interested readers can follow up with Love's own words in a chapter in William and Jacqueline Katz's Making Our Way (Dial, 1975; o.p.).?John Sigwald, Unger Memorial Library, Plainview, TX
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Ages 5-8. This picture-book biography of colorful Old West cowboy Nat Love follows his life from his early days as a slave on a plantation in Tennessee to his death in 1925 after becoming a legendary figure. Young readers will delight in Nat's exciting adventures, from the roping and shooting contests Nat wins to his capture by Indians and his daring midnight escape. Bryant's sprawling watercolor illustrations, all double-page spreads, nicely convey the spacious feeling of the untamed Old West. A great primary storytime selection for black history month. Lauren Peterson