Bill Pickett

by Andrea Davis Pinkney, J. Brian Pinkney (Illustrator)

Overview

The true sweat-and dirt tale of the feisty cowboy-child who become the most famous black rodeo performer who ever lived.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780780798250
Publisher:	Perfection Learning Corporation
Publication date:	01/01/2000
Pages:	28
Product dimensions:	9.10(w) x 11.10(h) x 0.40(d)
Lexile:	AD1000L (what's this?)
Age Range:	5 - 8 Years

About the Author

ANDREA DAVIS PINKNEY is the author of many award-winning picture books, including the critically acclaimed Let It Shine: Stories of Black Women Freedom Fighters, which won a Coretta Scott King Author Honor. She has also collaborated with her husband, illustrator Brian Pinkney, on several books, including

Duke Ellington: The Piano Prince and His Orchestra and Sleeping Cutie. The Pinkneys live in Brooklyn, New York.

BRIAN PINKNEY is a celebrated picture-book illustrator who has won two Caldecott Honors. His many professional tributes also include the Coretta Scott King Illustrator Award and three Coretta Scott King Illustrator Honors. He has collaborated with his wife, author Andrea Davis Pinkney, on several picture books including Duke Ellington: The Piano Prince and His Orchestra and Sleeping Cutie. The Pinkneys live in Brooklyn, New York.

Editorial Reviews

In a starred review, PW called this biography of the first African-American inducted into the National Cowboy Hall of Fame a "rip-roarin' salute to a legendary cowboy." Ages 4-8. (Nov.) Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

From the creators of Dear Benjamin Banneker (1994), rip-snorting picture-book biography of the first African-American cowboy inducted into the National Cowboy Hall of Fame. Pickett, "quick as a jackrabbit, more wide-eyed than a hooty owl," left home at 15, having already invented his famous bulldogging technique—controlling balky cattle by gripping their lips with his teeth and twisting. As a "wild-riding South Texas brushpopper," he quickly earned a reputation working both ranches and the rodeo circuit, putting on shows from Mexico City to London, and making steer-wrestling the standard rodeo event it is today. Based on both published sources and interviews with one of Pickett's descendants (and with an afterword called "More About Black Cowboys"), this covers the essentials of his career while casting Pickett in the mold of a folk hero. Although readers may be disappointed to see only one scene of Pickett performing his spectacularly gross trick (sinking his teeth into the lips of a steer), the swirling lines and brushstrokes of the scratchboard illustrations ably second the text's energy and vivid imagery.

Kirkus Reviews