ALA Booklist (Sat Jul 01 00:00:00 CDT 1995)

The spare, lovely narrative of this picture book, based on the childhood of Booker T. Washington, is in the voice of a nine-year-old boy. He tells of leaving his cabin before dark to work all day shoveling salt with his father and older brother: All day long we shovel it, but it refuses to grow smaller. Despite the community poverty and toil, there's a sense of freedom now, something different: All people are free to go where they want and do what they can. What Booker wants is to read. Finally, he finds someone to teach him his letters, and it's as if he's reborn. He will read, and he'll teach others to read. Soentpiet's beautiful watercolor paintings show individual portraits lit up from the surrounding darkness. There's some idealization: even in the saltworks the pictures focus not on the back-breaking, skin-tearing labor, but on the child's view of himself and his world. Booker dreams of the light of literacy and the freedom it will bring. The story will hold kids and make them want to find out more about the person and the history. (Reviewed July 1995)

Horn Book (Sat Apr 01 00:00:00 CST 1995)

The nine-year-old narrator describes how he works with his father and brother in the saltworks of West Virginia. The aches from his difficult labor are not as painful as the boy's longing to learn to read. When he sees a man reading a newspaper aloud, he knows that he, too, can learn. An evocative text and dramatic watercolors provide a stirring, fictionalized account of the early life of Booker T. Washington.

Kirkus Reviews

An inspiring story of young boy's compelling desire to read. As a boy of nine, Booker works in a salt mine from the dark of early morning to the gloom of night, hungry for a meal, but even hungrier to learn to read. Readers follow him on his quest in Malden, Virginia, where he finds inspiration in a man brown as me'' reading a newspaper on a street corner. An alphabet book helps, but Booker can't make the connection to words. Seeking outthat brown face of hope'' once again, Booker gains a sense of the sounds represented by letters, and these become his deliverance. Bradby's fine first book is tautly written, with a poetic, spiritual quality in every line. The beautifully executed, luminous illustrations capture the atmosphere of an African-American community post-slavery: the drudgery of days consumed by back- breaking labor, the texture of private lives conducted by lantern- light. There is no other context or historical note about Booker T. Washington's life, leaving readers to piece together his identity. Regardless, this is an immensely satisfying, accomplished work, resonating first with longing and then with joy. (Picture book. 5- 8)"

School Library Journal

PreS-Gr 3--A fictionalized story about the life of young Booker T. Washington. Living in a West Virginia settlement after emancipation, nine-year-old Booker travels by lantern light to the salt works, where he labors from dawn till dusk. Although his stomach rumbles, his real hunger is his intense desire to learn to read. Back in town, the boy sees a man reading aloud from a newspaper; he envisions himself possessing this magical knowledge and passing it on to others. When his mother presents him with an alphabet book, he studies the letters and ``...tries to imagine their song.'' Just when he is feeling frustrated, he finds the newspaper man, who explains the letters. An exuberant Booker throws his arms in the air, then settles down to learn how to write his name. Bradby's text is eloquent, presenting phrases and spinning images that capture the intense feelings in the story. Throughout the poetic narrative, Booker glows with his desire to read, and the inspiring tone of the language predicts a bright future. Soentpiet's watercolors create a realistic sense of time and place, perfectly matching the emotional level of the text. Booker awkwardly lifting a heavy shovel of salt, his straight-backed posture when accepting the book from his mother, his look of concentration while practicing his letters by candlelight, his face shining with satisfaction when he has written his name--all of these images, underscored by a dramatic use of shadow and light, work with the words to create a moving and inspirational story.--Joy Fleishhacker, New York Public Library