The Adventurous Deeds of Deadwood Jones - Softcover

Hemphill, Helen

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1590788966 ISBN 13: 9781590788967

Publisher: Astra Young Readers, 2011

Synopsis

Saddle up! We're headed for Deadwood. When Prometheus Jones wins a horse with the raffle ticket he got from Pernie and LaRue Boyd, he knows things won't go smoothly. No way are those two rednecks going to let a black man, even a freeman from the day of his birth, keep that horse. So as soon as things get ugly, he jumps on the horse, pulls his friend Omer up behind him, and heads off. They hook up with a cattle drive out of Texas heading for Deadwood, North Dakota. Prometheus is a fine hand with a horse and not so bad with a gun, and both skills prove useful as the trip north throws every twist and turn imaginable at the young cowpokes. The Adventurous Deeds of Deadwood Jones, a Voice of Youth Advocates Top Shelf Fiction for Middle School Readers book, revives the famous "dime novels" about "Deadwood Dick" written by Edward L. Wheeler, which, in turn, were loosely based on the autobiography of the African American cowboy Nat Love.

About this title

About the Author

Helen Hemphill grew up in Texas and now lives in Austin and Nashville, Tennessee. She is the author of the novel Long Gone Daddy, which was published to considerable critical acclaim. The Adventurous Deeds of Deadwood Jones is her third book.

From School Library Journal

Grade 5–8—Prometheus Jones, born to a Tennessee slave on the same day Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation, has always had good luck, and, at age 13, he wins a horse in a raffle. Before she died, "Mama always told I was the luckiest child on earth. Might ride that horse clear to Texas and never look back." Indeed, Prometheus uses his newly acquired transportation to flee the racist rednecks who accuse him of stealing the raffle ticket. Because of his exceptional skill with horses, he and his sidekick cousin are invited to join a cattle drive to South Dakota. Along the way, they get a taste of the Wild West during the time of Manifest Destiny, Indian wars, and gold rush prospectors. Inspired by the autobiography of African-American cowboy Nat Love, this notable Western shows a side of cowboy life rarely depicted: the diversity found among one of the few groups at the time that valued a man's talents over the color of his skin. Hemphill's convincing vernacular narration and well-researched, hard-bitten details of life in the South and on the western range give this adventure story surprising depth. The fast-paced plot, punctuated by Prometheus's astonishing wins and losses, will lasso readers' interest.—Madeline Walton-Hadlock, San Jose Public Library, CA
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

About this edition

• Publisher: Astra Young Readers
• Publication date: 2011
• ISBN 10: 1590788966
• ISBN 13: 9781590788967
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 232