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Black Cat Bone: The Life of Blues Legend Robert Johnson
He goes to pickin' notes ungodly
From a land unknown, singin'
like a blackbird possessed . . .
Little Robert grew up fast.
He came from the muddy back roads of Mississippi, lived largely in mystery, and died young, leaving behind little more than two grainy photographs and a batch of tinny recordings. But with a guitar in his hands, he played and sang the blues like none before. His name? Robert a man some have called the root of rock 'n' roll, a musician trailed by rumors that his guitar was tuned by the devil.
The poems of J. Patrick Lewis, haunting illustrations of Gary Kelley, and musical lyrics of Robert Johnson himself harmonize in Black Cat Bone to tell the tale of this most legendary bluesman. As the poems explore the humble origins, rambling travels, and tragic death of Johnson, chalk illustrations offer a window onto the legends that have taken root to explain his extraordinary skills. An endnotes section at the back of the book lends factual footing to the story of this 1930s guitarist and singer, offering a fuller picture of his rise, fall, and the myth-steeped legacy that surrounds him still.
From a land unknown, singin'
like a blackbird possessed . . .
Little Robert grew up fast.
He came from the muddy back roads of Mississippi, lived largely in mystery, and died young, leaving behind little more than two grainy photographs and a batch of tinny recordings. But with a guitar in his hands, he played and sang the blues like none before. His name? Robert a man some have called the root of rock 'n' roll, a musician trailed by rumors that his guitar was tuned by the devil.
The poems of J. Patrick Lewis, haunting illustrations of Gary Kelley, and musical lyrics of Robert Johnson himself harmonize in Black Cat Bone to tell the tale of this most legendary bluesman. As the poems explore the humble origins, rambling travels, and tragic death of Johnson, chalk illustrations offer a window onto the legends that have taken root to explain his extraordinary skills. An endnotes section at the back of the book lends factual footing to the story of this 1930s guitarist and singer, offering a fuller picture of his rise, fall, and the myth-steeped legacy that surrounds him still.
48 pages, Hardcover
First published August 31, 2006
26 people want to read
About the author
J. Patrick Lewis
135 books104 followersJ. Patrick Lewis is the current Children's Poet Laureate. He has written more than seventy children's books, including Once Upon a Tomb: Gravely Humorous Verses. J. Patrick Lewis lives in Ohio.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
January 2, 2013
1/2/13 ** Take time to peruse this book slowly - it has layers like an onion. Each page has its own poem about some aspect of bluesman Robert Johnson. Some pages have lyrics of Johnson's songs. At the bottom of each page, there is a running footer of lines from yet another poem about Johnson's life. Finally, in a form of endnotes, there is an explanation of an aspect of Johnson's life to correspond with each poem.
Every page has lovely blue/black woodblock illustrations to complement the poems.
Every page has lovely blue/black woodblock illustrations to complement the poems.
February 4, 2026
This book is really unique and ambitious, and the illustrations by Gary Kelley are extraordinary. Can’t speak highly enough of them. The print quality is mostly really nice (especially for a small publisher), but the fuzzy, slightly artifacted block text on the title page in my copy seems like an oversight.
I like the more mature, moody tone it sets in the text and in the illustrations. It’s organized as a series of poems, but the poems follow the broad narrative of Robert Johnson’s life and myth. Accompanying the poems on the bottom are these small fragments of text, about 4-8 words each, that relate to the poem on the page and form a continuous narration of Johnson’s life in more concrete terms. There were no fragments on the pages with Johnson’s lyrics. I can sort of see why they’d think these footers were a good idea, but in practice I found it all very distracting and redundant. For one, by the time you’ve gotten to the bottom of the page you’ve already read a whole poem, so you’ve sort of forgotten the previous sentence fragment that the new one connects to. They’re not memorable enough to retain, so then you get distracted and have to flip back. Also, since there were none on the Robert Johnson pages, they’d start a sentence, and then you flip two pages, then you read more of it, then flip again, then read a bit more. All for a narrative that’s already being spelled out perfectly fine by the poems themselves (and the poems’ descriptive titles!!). I think if the pages had been designed better that this could have been pulled off to greater effect as a sort of easter egg, but as is, it didn't work for me personally.
Some of Lewis’ poetry feels a bit stilted, but when it works it works—nice little slice of rhyme and atmosphere in the poem “Jook Joint Saturday Night”, for example. The book feels like a real passion project, which also explains some of its quirks. Also like “Women Lying Awake”, if not for the quality of its language then for its honesty. Feels more like a real nuanced poem, especially when compared to the didactic tone that crops up in spots elsewhere. Most annoyingly in the last poem (“They’ve heard a hundred rappers / But haven’t heard of me” …….................).
But god, the type design is evil. Why’d they choose the narrowest, least legible body type known to graphic design???? Especially when they have such a nice unique type that they’re using for the body on Robert Johnson’s lyrics. The tiny, thick, narrow, condensed type is hard enough to read that it should never get chosen as body in any publication—in a picture book theoretically for children (?), it’s borderline malicious. The line spacing is also really uncomfortably tall, as if that helps the legibility one bit 😭 Please can we think.
I appreciate that the text is written for a higher level reader, but there are certain parts that I still would have edited for clarity regardless of the audience. Overall it feels much more like a picture book for adults rather than one made with young people in mind. Which is a shame, because with some design and format alterations I think it could have better served the kind of audience that'd get the most out of it (middle grade?? high school?? I'm really not sure). As it is, it kind of tries to fit itself within the 'picture book for upper-level readers' niche, which is quite a small niche at that.
I bring this up because this book is packaged like a picture book but not following any of the rules (good or bad) you’re told children’s books must follow. On the one hand I kind of enjoy that. The illustrations are atmospheric and abstracted, focused on conveying an emotion, a mood. The text has some complex sentence constructions, layered metaphors, and some more demanding vocab. It’s not always following a concrete narrative, instead floating between vignettes of poetry and bundles of lyrics. Again, I’m all for this—all for picture books written for experienced readers, picture books that break rules—but I really think that this book could’ve been a much clearer gesture overall if the text was more attentively designed and thoughtfully organized, not just on each page but with larger book-level continuity in mind. PLEASE! The more I look at it the more it irks me, and I’m not even that well-versed in graphic design. Really, more broadly, it would have benefited from a publishing team who could have packaged the raw materials of this passion project into something better poised to reach the audience it's looking for. Kind of a perplexing book to me overall, even if I ultimately enjoyed it
I like the more mature, moody tone it sets in the text and in the illustrations. It’s organized as a series of poems, but the poems follow the broad narrative of Robert Johnson’s life and myth. Accompanying the poems on the bottom are these small fragments of text, about 4-8 words each, that relate to the poem on the page and form a continuous narration of Johnson’s life in more concrete terms. There were no fragments on the pages with Johnson’s lyrics. I can sort of see why they’d think these footers were a good idea, but in practice I found it all very distracting and redundant. For one, by the time you’ve gotten to the bottom of the page you’ve already read a whole poem, so you’ve sort of forgotten the previous sentence fragment that the new one connects to. They’re not memorable enough to retain, so then you get distracted and have to flip back. Also, since there were none on the Robert Johnson pages, they’d start a sentence, and then you flip two pages, then you read more of it, then flip again, then read a bit more. All for a narrative that’s already being spelled out perfectly fine by the poems themselves (and the poems’ descriptive titles!!). I think if the pages had been designed better that this could have been pulled off to greater effect as a sort of easter egg, but as is, it didn't work for me personally.
Some of Lewis’ poetry feels a bit stilted, but when it works it works—nice little slice of rhyme and atmosphere in the poem “Jook Joint Saturday Night”, for example. The book feels like a real passion project, which also explains some of its quirks. Also like “Women Lying Awake”, if not for the quality of its language then for its honesty. Feels more like a real nuanced poem, especially when compared to the didactic tone that crops up in spots elsewhere. Most annoyingly in the last poem (“They’ve heard a hundred rappers / But haven’t heard of me” …….................).
But god, the type design is evil. Why’d they choose the narrowest, least legible body type known to graphic design???? Especially when they have such a nice unique type that they’re using for the body on Robert Johnson’s lyrics. The tiny, thick, narrow, condensed type is hard enough to read that it should never get chosen as body in any publication—in a picture book theoretically for children (?), it’s borderline malicious. The line spacing is also really uncomfortably tall, as if that helps the legibility one bit 😭 Please can we think.
I appreciate that the text is written for a higher level reader, but there are certain parts that I still would have edited for clarity regardless of the audience. Overall it feels much more like a picture book for adults rather than one made with young people in mind. Which is a shame, because with some design and format alterations I think it could have better served the kind of audience that'd get the most out of it (middle grade?? high school?? I'm really not sure). As it is, it kind of tries to fit itself within the 'picture book for upper-level readers' niche, which is quite a small niche at that.
I bring this up because this book is packaged like a picture book but not following any of the rules (good or bad) you’re told children’s books must follow. On the one hand I kind of enjoy that. The illustrations are atmospheric and abstracted, focused on conveying an emotion, a mood. The text has some complex sentence constructions, layered metaphors, and some more demanding vocab. It’s not always following a concrete narrative, instead floating between vignettes of poetry and bundles of lyrics. Again, I’m all for this—all for picture books written for experienced readers, picture books that break rules—but I really think that this book could’ve been a much clearer gesture overall if the text was more attentively designed and thoughtfully organized, not just on each page but with larger book-level continuity in mind. PLEASE! The more I look at it the more it irks me, and I’m not even that well-versed in graphic design. Really, more broadly, it would have benefited from a publishing team who could have packaged the raw materials of this passion project into something better poised to reach the audience it's looking for. Kind of a perplexing book to me overall, even if I ultimately enjoyed it
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November 11, 2020I've heard, of course, the fabled tale of Robert Johnson and what is rumored to have happened on the crossroad that fateful night. I didn't, however, know the rest of his story and I definitely didn't expect to find it in a children's library.
Robert Johnson was the godfather of the blues and the root of rock and roll. He led an adventurous life that ended young at the age of 27. I think the poems between these pages do a marvelous job of capturing who he was, if only for a fleeting moment. I also really appreciated that they used his words between their own poems. It chronicles his life from start to finish, filling the gaps with his personality and music. I also liked that it ended with some background context for each poem. That was very helpful.
The art stands out to me as perfectly reflective of the tone, drenched in blacks and blues that sit starkly against the plain-white backdrop. Each illustration caught my breath, especially towards the end where Robert Johnson himself lays in casket across both pages. He seems larger-than-life, which - after reading the book - seems very fitting.
Robert Johnson was the godfather of the blues and the root of rock and roll. He led an adventurous life that ended young at the age of 27. I think the poems between these pages do a marvelous job of capturing who he was, if only for a fleeting moment. I also really appreciated that they used his words between their own poems. It chronicles his life from start to finish, filling the gaps with his personality and music. I also liked that it ended with some background context for each poem. That was very helpful.
The art stands out to me as perfectly reflective of the tone, drenched in blacks and blues that sit starkly against the plain-white backdrop. Each illustration caught my breath, especially towards the end where Robert Johnson himself lays in casket across both pages. He seems larger-than-life, which - after reading the book - seems very fitting.
May 30, 2020
I purchased the "Complete Recordings" of Robert Johnson very shortly after they were released. I have been a fan ever since I heard his music. I know the stories of the myth of the man and his soul that was traded for talent. His music is amazing. This book relates the story in poetry and fantastic art. It is a fine book. I wish only that it shared a few more of the facts regarding the discovery of Johnson's recordings.
August 17, 2010
Excellent poetry that makes good use of its blues subject as a poetic device. This very short verse biography is formatted as a picture book (with fabulous illustrations), but I worry that the picture book format means that the teens who would find this book interesting will never pick it up.
May 10, 2015
Lyrics to songs and poems.
June 3, 2016
Go book
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews