Black Cowboy, Wild Horses

Description

Bob Lemmons is famous for his ability to track wild horses. He rides his horse, Warrior, picks up the trail of mustangs, then runs with them day and night until they accept his presence. Bob and Warrior must then challenge the stallion for leadership of the wild herd. A victorious Bob leads the mustangs across the wide plains and for one last spectacular run before guiding them into the corral. Bob's job is done, but he dreams of galloping with Warrior forever to where the sky and land meet. This splendid collaboration by an award-winning team captures the beauty and harshness of the frontier, a boundless arena for the struggle between freedom and survival. Based on accounts of Bob Lemmons, a formerly enslaved person, Black Cowboy, Wild Horses has been rewritten as a picture book by Julius Lester from his story "The Man Who Was a Horse" in Long Journey Home, first published by Dial in 1972.

Julius Lester was born in 1939 and spent his youth in the Midwest and the South. He received a B.A. in English from Fisk University, and went on to write numerous books of fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and picture books. One of the most celebrated authors in the field of children's literature, he received a Newbery Honor, a Boston Globe-Horn Book Award, and was a finalist for a National Book Award, National Jewish Book Award, and National Book Critics Circle Award. He died in 2018. Jerry Pinkney is one of America's most admired children's book illustrators. He has won the Caldecott Medal and five Caldecott Honors, five Coretta Scott King Awards, five New York Times Ten Best Illustrated Awards, the Children's Literature Legacy Award, the Coretta Scott King-Virginia Hamilton Award for Lifetime Achievement, and many other prizes and honors. Recently a member of the National Council of the Arts and inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, he has also served on the U.S. Postal Service Citizen's Stamp Advisory Committee. His artwork has been exhibited in galleries and museums throughout the country. He lives with his wife, author Gloria Jean Pinkney, in Westchester County, New York.