Skip to main content

Johnny Appleseed

Image from amazon.com

Transitioning gracefully from fact to myth and back again, Kellogg’s take on the remarkable life and Johnny Appleseed legend which grew up around John Chapman is an attractive introduction to one of America’s first folk heroes. Hewing close to reality with a linear but episodic narrative, the tale of the most famous nurseryman in the United States is simplified for young audiences and presents as fact not only verifiable details of Chapman’s life but also a handful of digressions into possible but improbable occurrences. Among these is his victory in an impromptu tree-chopping contest which reaches into nigh-surreality when aided by the wordless full-bleed opening showing a legion of woodsmen in an axe-wielding frenzy. Beyond such direct embellishment of the tale, Kellogg’s densely textured art creates a frontier that, if not quite Disney-fied, certainly contains vastly more smiling woodland creatures in picturesque vistas and far fewer instances of hardship and mortal danger than contemporary accounts suggest. Illustration dominates every page from pastoral front endpages to humorously cartographic back endpages, save the Author’s Note on the last page of the volume, in which Kellogg writes about his research into John Chapman and references the works he used as a basis for his own playfully educational biography.



  • Johnny Appleseed by Steven Kellogg; illus. by the author
  • Primary 
  • Morrow Junior Books 
  • 48 pp.
  • Published 1988 
  • ISBN 0-688-06417-5
  • $16.99 

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Becoming a Comics Librarian and the Importance of Joining a Community of Practice

  Originally published April 5, 2023 Library Developments Blog |  Library Development and Networking Division Texas State Library and Archives Commission ***** As a freshly-minted librarian, I was hired to serve at THE high school bearing my district’s name alongside an amazingly zany, veteran librarian who knew the current collection inside and out as she’d been the one to revitalize it with bond money just prior to my arrival. To say that I was intimidated about what I could possibly have to contribute is more than an understatement. So when the moment of truth arrived and I was handed a “small” purchase order to get my feet wet, I. Was. Stymied! Her  fingerprints were all throughout that collection, and what  she  didn’t read our assistant  did . How would I ever fit into this team?! What could I possibly contribute?! To be honest… after teaching a core, tested subject for fifteen years, I was just beginning to read young adult literature regularly...

ARSL 2024 Conference Recap

  Originally published October 25, 2024 Library Developments Blog  |  Library Development and Networking Division Texas State Library and Archives Commission Waiting outside Gate 21 where the scent of pizza from the nearby Eastside Pies booth filled the air, I excitedly chatted about the transitional weather with my new teammate – to quote James Hurst “summer was dead but autumn had not yet been born” – the logistics of traveling for work, and our preparedness to attend the 2024 Association for Small and Rural Libraries (ARSL) conference . Neither of us truly knew what to expect, but we had been told that ARSL is THE conference for rural and small libraries, with conference organizers who not only understand the constraints of these libraries but also the unique opportunities for their being chrysalises of change. The conference theme “Libraries are (r)Evolutionary” proclaimed the event aimed to provide an opportunity for exploring the transformative power of rural and sm...

Staff Highlight: Christina Taylor

Originally published July 28, 2021 Library Developments Blog | Library Development and Networking Division Texas State Library and Archives Commission **** As part of our effort to make sure you know who the staff here at the Texas State Library are, we would like to periodically highlight staff members that you may at some point come in contact with! For our next staff highlight of 2021, I interviewed Christina Taylor, Library Development and Networking (LDN)’s new Youth Services Consultant on the Continuing Education and Consulting (CEC) team)! What are your job responsibilities at TSLAC? As the Youth Services Consultant, I will work towards ensuring Texas libraries are knowledgeable about and have the resources to implement youth services that meet the needs of their communities. To that end, I will lead projects for internal, statewide, and national initiatives relating to youth services. What projects are you excited to get started with? As a fervent advocate for comics and graph...