A wonderful book about an amazing man who lived to be 101 years old. Barasch did an admirable job capturing the spirit and mood of Peg Leg Bates in both text and illustration. ( )

This is a short biography about Peg Leg Bates. Peg Leg grew up during the 1900's and lost his leg in a factory accident. He didn't let this stop him from dancing and went on to become a famous tap dancer, over-coming many adversities. The book is well written and holds the reader's interest. I enjoyed the fact that this is a true story. The illustrations appeared to be water-color. ( )

The book Knockin’ on Wood Starring Peg Leg Bates by Lynne Barasch is a nonfiction picture book that tells the story of a Peg Leg Bates. This biography presents the overall messages that despite your circumstances, you should never let adversity hold you down. The illustrations woven throughout the text are colorful and descriptive perfectly supporting the text. The use of colloquial dialogue makes the story more personal and authentic. This story was a good read, and is definitely recommended for those interested in music history and dance.

I enjoyed reading this story because of the way the text was used to display different message throughout the story and the characteristics of the main character. The author used the text in two very interesting ways to convey different meanings to the reader. First, the author used capitalized in “MY boy” to display the tone of voice of the character speaking. Second, the author used italics to show the characters’ inner thoughts. Also, I enjoyed this story because the main character is disabled. The main character in the story becomes an amputee and is still able to pursue his dreams which would be inspiration to any person with a disability. The main message of this story is that adversity should not hold you back from achieving you dreams, anything is possible. ( )

Knockin’ on Wood is a picture book that tells the true story of Peg Leg Bates. The message of this story is determination. I really enjoyed this book. One thing that I really liked about it was the integration of facts from the time period into Bates’ life. The book talks about Bates’ mother's working in the field and not making enough money. It also talks about Bates’ performing for white people, but not getting to eat in the same place as they. The book incorporates these daily struggles of an African American’s life in that time period, without making them the sole focus of the book. A second thing that I really liked about the book was the pictures of Bates’ doing various tap moves. I am a tap dancer, so I really liked that the book used the correct terms and depicted the motions for various steps. ( )