Product Description

The long-enduring American legend of Johnny Appleseed comes to life in the glorious folk illustrations and spirited storytelling of Will Moses. Everyone knows the story of Johnny Appleseed: how he traveled westward across our young country, spreading apple trees wherever he went and wearing outlandish hats, like a soup pot, on his head. But did you know that Johnny Appleseed was a real person? Born John Chapman in 1774, he grew up in a family of twelve children, and as a young man, struck out to find the frontier. It was along this journey that he discovered the wonders of apple trees, and where he had his life adventures.

In the tradition of his great-grandmother, Grandma Moses, Will Moses's much-loved folk art perfectly illustrates this American tale.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1134580 in Books
• Published on: 2001-09-10
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 48 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780399231537
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

From Publishers Weekly
Employing an intriguing blend of biography, comparative literature and good old-fashioned yarn-spinning, Moses (Silent Night; The Legend of Sleepy Hollow) explores the life and times of Johnny Appleseed, the great tree hugger and tree planter from American folklore. Appleseed, who began life as John Chapman, born in Massachusetts in 1774, had always longed to "live as he wanted, free like the Indians and the animals," in the wild woods and undeveloped lands of early America. At the leisurely pace of a stroll through a country orchard, Moses fashions his own homespun account of Johnny's adventures by touching upon myriad legends and tales. According to the narrative, as a young man Johnny headed west to the frontier, where the ideas that formed his lifelong vision took shape: "apples were good for just about everything" and the versatile fruit was "just what the frontier needed." Living in the woods, often tattered and scruffy in appearance, Johnny roamed the wilds of western Pennsylvania and the Ohio frontier planting apple seeds and saplings and helping pioneers do the same. His reputation for kindness and generosity, as well as for his strange behavior, grew even after his death in 1845. Delicate, folk-art oil paintings capture the eccentric folk hero in his "outlandish hat a soup pot one day, a pasteboard cap the next" as well as America at its bucolic best a rolling land of fertile hills, farms and rivers and, of course, bountiful, blossoming apple trees. All ages.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
Gr. 4-6. This picture-book biography of John Chapman, aka Johnny Appleseed, is written and illustrated by a well-known folk artist. Starting in 1774, the year of Chapman's birth, Moses briefly covers Chapman's early childhood, and then quickly moves on to his young adult years, when he leaves home for the frontier. The bulk of the book documents Chapman's rich adult life and celebrates his odd ways. The book will augment a classroom unit on pioneer life or even folklore, but the text is too long and complex for the usual picture-book crowd, and it will appeal only to the older, most committed Appleseed fans. The paintings, however, from thumbnail size to almost full page, are filled with rich detail and are unforgettable. Kathy Broderick
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review
"Delicate folk-art oil paintings capture the eccentric hero as well as America at its bucolic best." -- Publishers Weekly

Customer Reviews

As seen at the Festival
I had a chance to review a copy of the book at the Johnny Appleseed Festival in Fort Wayne, Indiana. I have studied and portrayed John Chapman/Johnny Appleseed for the festival since 1979. The artwork and prose writing are very good in this book which tell the legend of Johnny. The historical facts however are not correct. This work doesn't help anyone reading it separate the fact from the myths or legends. Since the author did not leave any historical note distiguishing fact from fiction the work may perpetuate misinformation. Many of the people who work the festival and know the history constantly fight the fabrication that John wore a pan on his head. Settlers in John's day would also not recognize the illustrations since an author who wrote a romaticized novel well after John died made up the pan story. Many authors of fiction and nonfiction are beginning to take that pan off John's head.

This book does display a beautiful folk art style. For best appreciation libraries should keep this book with the art or poetry/short story books. Schools should use this book along with other factual books to explore the richness of Johnny's legends and to teach the differences between historical fact and legends or myths.