John Henry

John Henry
By Julius Lester
Pictures by Jerry Pinkney
Book by Julius Lester category

This book retells the legend of John Henry, an African American man with the strength of ten men who challenges a steam powered drill to see who can dig through a mountain the fastest. He wins, but dies because of the stress of the competition on his heart.

I can remember my father telling me the story of John Henry as a child. The illustrator captured the detailed pictures of my imagination as a child. The rhythm, dialect and touches of modern day references of the text would make it a great read aloud book.

This book is similar to another book written by Julius Lester and illustrated by Jerry Pinkney: Tales of Uncle Remus: The Adventures of Brer Rabbit. Julius Lester again retells African American stories using the same format as he did in John Henry.

I learned from reading this book that important concept’s in life can be told in the form of children’s stories and have a lasting effect on whoever (adult or child) reads them. If only everyone in the world could live by Julius Lester’s most memorable line from this book,
“Dying ain’t important. Everybody does that. What matters is how well you do your living.”