This book was so fun and so educational. The author sets out to describe the diversity that existed in America’s history. The art work and historical photos was great. It was easy to read yet was packed with information. I feel like I sat through a history class. I first heard about this through Brenna on the What Should I Read Next podcast/Patreon group. I am so glad she recommended this. I will be handing this off to my children to read and have passed it and the wonderful book list at the end to a teacher friend. Thank you to Netgalley and Myrick Marketing/TOON Graphics for this free copy in exchange for my honest review.

Devoured this book. It's everything a history book should be: fascinating, adventurous, informative. James Otis Taylor's graphic novel is engaging and sure to be loved by students. Plus, there's Kadir Nelson portraiture and primary source photos featuring Black, Indigenous and People of Color in the west during Reconstruction.

Goodreads Rating: 4 stars
NetGalley Rating: 5 stars

Western history has always fascinated me, but it has always struck me how difficult it is to find books (fiction or nonfiction) about minorities of any sort, especially black people, who lived in the Western frontier. This provides a great, if short, introduction to three black pioneers who went West and made a name for themselves delivering mail and building missions, hunting fugitives, and herding wild horses.

I had heard about Mary Fields briefly before from a friend, but I still learned some more facts about her from this books. Bob Lemmon and Bass Reeves I had never heard of before though, so this was a very enlightening introduction to them! There is also a brief historical section in the back with some great pictures.

This was much shorter than I expected it to be and I feel like the content of each biography could have gone deeper or wider, whether in the story telling, the historical, or both. Smith blends the historical facts with a vignette about each person’s life very smoothly and creates a very engaging setting, so I would love to have been able to read more!

Despite the short length, this is an excellent jumping off point for readers to learn that not all Wild West history is white, and that blacks played a vital role in helping to shape the new frontier.

Love the actual photographs used in the end papers and the back matter. Stories are interesting and cover lesser-known people. Wish the print was a little bigger on the back matter but there is so much I guess it had to be small to fit it all in. Would love to see more people's stories told in this manner.

My library recently purchased this book since it was an award winner for the state of Texas. I think it did a great job of addressing a topic that's not often written about and the illustrations were gorgeous!