African Diaspora at Internet Archive: Janet Johnson

For today, I have three African American books from the "Legends of the World" series, written by Janet P. Johnson and with illustrations by Charles Reasoner!

The first is Lucky Jack and the Giant: An African American Legend:

Here's an illustration showing Jack's encounter with a mysterious wise woman:

The book does not give exact origins to the source, and in the note at the back, there is a very unfortunate reference to "Kaffirs" as if that were the name of an African people, when instead it is a derogatory word used for black Africans in South Africa (I'm kind of shocked the editor did not do something to correct that).

The next one is Keelboat Annie: An African American Legend.

You can read more about the legend of Annie Christmas at Wikipedia. Here's an illustration depicting her enormous strength:

And the last one is How Mr. Dog Got Tame: An African-American Legend.

Here are the two main characters, Mr. Dog and Mr. Wolf:

This story comes from the tales collected and published by Joel Chandler Harris; you can read Julius Lester's version of that story here: Why Dogs Are Tame; here is Jerry Pinkney's illustration:

So many good stories to enjoy, and so much great art too, all just a click away at the Internet Archive! 

Lucky Jack and the Giant:

An African American Legend

by Janet P. Johnson

Keelboat Annie: An African American Legend

by Janet P. Johnson

How Mr. Dog Got Tame:

An African-American Legend

by Janet P. Johnson