Best Shot In The West: The Adventures Of Nat Love (2012) - Plot & Excerpts
Okay, so I'm at the library in the children's section with my kiddo waiting for my husband to pick us up and I'm bored so I pick up this book. I got engrossed in it and since my hubbie took forever at the antique shop, I easily finished it. It is a pretty good story about a black man who was a cowboy in the old west. Good story, but I did find it a little hard to follow at times. This could be because I haven't read many "graphic novels" (we called this comic books when I was a kid, but I guess I'm old-fashioned) so I'm not used to the format. Anyway, a good introduction for kids into how black people have been treated in our country and how we have gone backwards in some ways (for adults see this in The Black Count). The acrylic and pen illustrations in this graphic novel provide a haunting backdrop to the story, told in graphic novel format, of Nat Love, also known as Deadwood Dick. Sometimes it's almost impossible to distinguish the features of the characters or even the setting since the paintings make it seem as though readers are traveling back into the misty fog of time long past. While I loved the story of this man's adventures as a cowboy and felt heartbroken at all the losses he experienced after his birth as a slave in 1854, I wasn't pleased with the one-dimensional portrayal of Native Americans. Surely, his is a story worth telling, even if it has many elements of a tall tale about it, making it partially a biography and partially fiction. Probably this story is best served by being told in a graphic novel format since so much seemed to have happened. How poignant it was to watch Nat as a porter having to snap to the orders of those who considered themselves better than him! If only they had realized with whom they were speaking!
What do You think about Best Shot In The West: The Adventures Of Nat Love (2012)?
Pretty good historical graphic novel. Very good for middle school.
—john
Interesting. Definitely for younger middle school students.
—curochiita
Nat Love lived such an interesting life. Wow!
—Michael
