cover image The Legend of John Henry

The Legend of John Henry

Terry Small. Doubleday Books for Young Readers, $14.95 (1pp) ISBN 978-0-385-31168-7

This lengthy, illustrated narrative poem concentrates on the folk hero's epic confrontation with a mechanized drill, excluding other traditional episodes. Replaced twice by the machine, John Henry challenges its owner to a contest when it threatens to displace him a third time. John Henry's speech borrows its rhythm and rhyme from the familiar song: ``John Henry jes smile and strip to the waist. / `Well, a man ain't nothin but a man. / But before the steam drill beat me down, / I gon die wit a hammer in my han,' / Lawd, Lawd--gon die wit a hammer in my han.' '' He wins, and dies, perhaps knowing that machines will replace men no matter what he does. The primitive-style illustrations recall WPA murals, with John Henry posed dramatically as the hero of the African American worker--a role further emphasized by the white drill owner's slighting description of him as an ``uppity, loudmouth boy.'' Unfortunately, Small ( The Legend of Pecos Bill ) paces the story slowly, and at times it drags. The text also lacks a source note, but in spite of such flaws this volume offers a valid new version of a classic American tale. Ages 4-8. (Feb.)