Davy Crockett

School Library Journal

Gr 2-5-Kunstler, in the voice of Davy Crockett, spins a nonstop, rollicking tale of the real and legendary feats of the soldier, politician, and frontier legend who called himself the "...ring-tailed roarer of the western woods." The book begins with Davy's birth in the wilds of Tennessee, and ends with the battle of the Alamo and his reflections from the great beyond. In between, he sweet-talks a bear, pardons a possum, runs for Congress, and fights a keelboatman with eight twin brothers. This account includes more of the actual events in the man's life than Ariane Dewey's The Narrow Escapes of Davy Crockett (Greenwillow, 1990), but is told in a tall-tale style that begs to be read aloud. Davy's "good round of brag" as he attempts to lift the spirits of the troops at the Alamo exuberantly captures his personality. With such strong writing, it is all the more disappointing that the illustrations do not live up to the spirit of the text. These paintings lack a vital sense of time and place. Brodner's expressionistic style is well-suited to caricature and political cartoons, but the wildly exaggerated, often menacing figures are too extreme for even this high-spirited narrative.Kristin Lott, East Brunswick Public Library, NJ