Books like John Henry
By Julius Lester
For the kid who wants every story bigger and louder than life, this is a hero who scared the sun just by laughing. Booming, larger-than-life, and full of rhythm — tall-tale energy with real heart underneath.
A musical girl from small-town North Carolina, born Eunice Kathleen Waymon, grows into the singer Nina Simone — her sweet voice rising into a thunderous roar of protest during the Civil Rights Movement.
A young girl rides the Silver Meteor train north during the Great Migration, watching cotton fields give way to city lights, and telling her journey stop by stop in poems.
A legendary railroad worker, born with a hammer in his hand and stronger than anyone around, takes on a steam drill to see who can dig through a mountain faster.
A determined young dancer in the 1930s and 40s trains for ballet despite discriminatory schools, then refuses to paint her skin white for a company's offer — and rises to become the Met Opera's first Black prima ballerina.
A boy in Punjab, born with weak legs that kept him from playing cricket or walking to school, grows stronger year by year on his family's farm and eventually runs marathons at over one hundred years old.
Two sisters wake before sunrise six days a week to practice tennis, pushing through boos and taunts from a sport that didn't expect them, on their way to becoming legends.
A bricklayer works hard every day building the city, while his son works hard at school and plays at molding tiny clay bricks, until one Saturday his father surprises him with something built just for their family.
A boy who longs to be a trumpeter can only play an imaginary horn, until a musician from the neighborhood night club notices his ambition and takes him seriously.
A Black boy growing up in segregated 1940s North Carolina loves to draw everything around him, but becomes a football star instead — until his dream of making art finds its way to him.
A man and his dog set out on a peaceful camping trip, but a marshmallow-loving bear sends them plunging down a mountain and racing down a river toward a waterfall.
A groundbreaking basketball player soars above the rim with a style no one had seen before, then takes a stand when hotels and restaurants refuse him for being Black.
