Black Jack: The Ballad of Jack Johnson Book

The novel "Black Jack the Ballad of Jack Johnson" is about an African American man named Jack Johnson whose goal in life is to become the worlds best heavy weight champion. However the only problem is that Jack Johnson may not be let into the ring to fight and win that title, due to the color of his skin. After plenty of hard work and determination he finally climbed his way to the top and gets his chance to fight in the ring as an African American man. Johnson ends up completely dominating the competition and achieves his long time dream and goal of becoming the worlds first African American heavy weight champion. This book includes many things that shows how it is rich in cultural details, authentic dialogue relationships, in depth treatment of culture issues, and inclusion of minorities must be included. There were not very many cultural details in the book accept for a quote on the first page that reads, "I am not a slave. Because my ancestors came here before anyone had dreamed of a United States, I consider myself a pure-blooded AMERICAN" (Smith Jr, 1). The authentic dialogue in this book was great; Jack's relationship with his mother and struggles as a young man, were both documented in the story creating good and a very natural feeling dialogue. The treatment of cultural issues was strong in this particular story because most of the novel discusses Jack's limitations in life as an African American man trying to achieve his dream. Minorities were also relevant in the story towards the end of the book when Jack was competing against all white men and he was the only African American. This book shows such strong emotion and drive throughout each page that you feel as though you are the main character trying to win this title, you also feel a strong sense of pride and power for the African American community. This book goes along with the other minority books I have chosen to add to my classroom. This book does not have any negative look on African Americans, allowing it to be acceptable and great to have available to your students inside your classroom. I am hoping to have a collection of books covering every culture and ethnicity to be sure that all my students are accepting of one another. This book gave me a great and powerful feeling, it is great to see that somebody, being the main character can overcome his social obstacles that were based on his skin color. Jack did not let anybody get in his way of his dreams. The only criticism I can add to this book is that the overall story and voice from the author is a tad too dry. For an elementary student it could be hard to stay engaged. This book is a little on the longer side and is a biography both being something that children tend to have a hard time following along to. The images however, are very helpful in keeping the children engaged for a little longer than they would be without the images.

Smith, C. (2010). Black Jack. New York, New york: Roaring Book Press.