The McKissacks' (Black Diamond) outlandish but true story of African American cowboy Nat Love, also known as Deadwood Dick, feels tailor-made for a graphic novel treatment.
The action begins in 1902 Denver, with an African American porter who grabs the reins of a runaway horse and saves a child in its path. One of the passengers recognizes the man's skills ("Deadwood Dick! I knew it was you," the passenger says) and invites him to submit some cowboy stories about "the Old West." The McKissacks, who based their account on Love's autobiography, thus create a segue into Nat Love's reflections on his past. He discusses his birth into slavery, being freed shortly after the Civil War, and then working to support his family. He found his calling breaking colts at 10 cents each. The hero earned the name "Deadwood Dick" in Deadwood, South Dakota's "Great Cowboy Games," for being the first to rope a wild mustang and also the best shot.
Randy DuBurke's (Malcolm X) predominantly black-and-white sequences, with just a dash of color, hasten the story's pace. He uses panels to depict Nat Love's step-by-step mounting of the horses, then opens up double-page spreads to convey the animals' speed before he breaks them. The McKissacks select milestone moments that give readers insight into the man's character and also other tools that kept Nat Love alive: he could read, and he always treated others with respect. This pageturner allows readers to learn about post–Civil War era and meet a remarkable man in the process. --Jennifer M. Brown, children's editor, Shelf Awareness