Book Descriptions
for The Adventures of Sparrowboy by Brian Pinkney
From Cooperative Children's Book Center (CCBC)
Brian Pinkney cleverly uses a comic-book style to bring to life a heroic African-American boy. On the surface, Henry is an ordinary newspaper carrier but in his imagination he is a superhero named Sparrowboy. As he delivers newspapers door to door around his neighborhood, Sparrowboy comes to the rescue of two small children being chased by a dog, a baby bird who's fallen into the path of a runaway red wagon, and a cat who's being terrorized by the neighborhood bully. And he still manages to get all of his papers delivered on time. Even though Pinkney has used the conventions of comic-strip art, the strong lines of his scratchboard illustrations make the pictures clear from a great distance so that the book can easily be shared with a large group. (Ages 4-9)
CCBC Choices 1997. © Cooperative Children's Book Center, Univ. of Wisconsin - Madison, 1997. Used with permission.
From the Publisher
From Caldecott Honor winner Brian Pinkney comes the amazing, imaginative story of Henry, the paperboy. One morning while on his route, Henry accidentally collides with a sparrow and discovers that he can fly -- just like Falconman, his favorite comic strip superhero. The newfound power of flight enables Henry to deliver his papers by airmail, and also to right a number of minor wrongs in the neighborhood. When things magically return to normal, this affectionate fantasy will leave its readers feeling just like Henry -- "a little bit better" about everything.
Publisher description retrieved from Google Books.