When his family accidentally left him in the desert, he was found and subsequently raised by a wild pack of coyotes! This is an excellent and imaginative story in the widely-loved American Tall tale tradition. Show More grizzly bears instead of teddy bears. Because of this, McCurdy’s illustrations seem almost quaint at times however, he does “modernize” these pictures by adding stylized elements (particularly poses and settings) that lend a “cartoonish” quality that will make the artwork more accessible to young children. Michael McCurdy’s wood engraving illustrations are remarkable unique: like the tall tales described in the book, wood engravings come from an Americana tradition that evolved quickly into other graphic forms. Clearly, Osborne enjoys the “larger-than-life” tone of tall tales and keeps this tone alive in her version of the story. In the actual story of “John Henry” she has written, Osborne embraces the “fantasy” of tall tales, including the claims that John Henry was born with a hammer in his hand and that he did the work of five men at the same time. Show More John Henry stories, dating their creation to the 1870’s.
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