KNOCKIN' ON WOOD, STARRING PEG LEG BATES by Lynne Barasch (Lee and Low)
Sharecropping at the turn of the century was nothing but tedium and toil, and Clayton Bates manages to escape it by dancing up a storm. When he was twelve years old, he gained permission from his reticent mother to work at the cottonseed mill in order to get away from the fieldwork, but on the third day, his left leg was crushed in a machine and had to be amputated. Such a catastrophic misfortune would have crushed many a man's dreams, but for "Peg Leg" Bates, it was his opportunity to step up in the world. This terrific, toe-tapping biography doesn't sugarcoat the bigotry of the times, but uses it as a backdrop to make this man's rise to center stage all the more impressive. Watercolor illustrations capture the fluidity of the dancer's movements (great double-page spread of Peg-Leg practicing his time-step) and the photograph of the real Peg-Leg on the last page will garner applause, and fill your eyes with tears. What an inspiration! (7 and up)
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