Nat Love was an African-American cowboy in the 19th
century--and according to him, he led quite an
exciting life. He survived stampedes, hobnobbed
with Billy the Kid, nearly died in a blizzard, and
made a heroic escape after being captured by Native
Americans. This biography for upper elementary kids
talks about Nat's action-packed life.
This was a tricky book to write! Virtually the only
source of information about Nat's life is his
autobiography, which is written in true Western
tall-tale style--so it's very hard to tell what
really happened. What's a conscientious biographer
to do? I ended up telling Nat's version of his life
story in this book, but I made sure to let kids
know that Nat might have exaggerated or made things
up. Even if he took some liberties, his story is
too good not to tell!
