It Jes’ Happened: When Bill Traylor Started to Draw 
By Don Tate
Illustrated by R. Gregory Christie
9781600602603
Growing up as an enslaved boy on an Alabama cotton farm, Bill Traylor worked all day in the hot fields. When slavery ended, Bill’s family stayed on the farm as sharecroppers. There Bill grew to manhood, raised his own family, and cared for the land and his animals.
By 1935 Bill was eighty-one and all alone on his farm. So he packed his bag and moved to Montgomery, the capital of Alabama. Lonely and poor, he wandered the busy downtown streets. But deep within himself Bill had a reservoir of memories of working and living on the land, and soon those memories blossomed into pictures. Bill began to draw people, places, and animals from his earlier life, as well as scenes of the city around him.
Today Bill Traylor is considered to be one of the most important self-taught American folk artists. Winner of Lee & Low’s New Voices Award Honor, It Jes’ Happened is a lively tribute to this man who has enriched the world with more than twelve hundred warm, energetic, and often humorous pictures.
BookTalk with Don Tate and R. Gregory Christie
Book Teaser
Book Trailer
Back in stock in early January, or order now through bn.com or your local indie bookseller.
- Awards
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Top 10 Biographies for Youth 2012
Booklist
Top 10 Black History Books for Youth
Booklist
100 Magnificent Children's Books of 2012
Fuse #8 Production
2013 Ezra Jack Keats New Writer Award Honor
Ezra Jack Keats Foundation and de Grummond Childrenâs Literature Collection
"Choices"
Cooperative Children's Book Center
More awards... - Interest Level
- Grades 1 - 6
- Reading Level
- Grade 3
- Themes
- Art, Biography, African/African American Interest, Childhood Experiences and Memories, Dreams & Aspirations, Historical Interest, Imagination, Overcoming Obstacles, Slavery, United States History, Nonfiction
- Kirkus Reviews
- Publishers Weekly
- Horn Book
- Elizabeth Bird, "A Fuse #8 Production"
- Booklist
- School Library Journal
- Nancy Bo Flood
- A Wrung Sponge
- The San Francisco Children's Fiction Examiner
- The Birmingham Times
- Waking Brain Cells
- Wrapped in Foil
- The Plain Dealer
- Cherub Book Reviews
- The Crimson Review
- 1330v Blog
- Kidsbiographer
- Library Media Connection
- proseandkahn
- Homegirl Blog
- Sharpread
- True Tales & A Cherry on Top
Don Tate
makes his debut as an author with the publication of It Jes’ Happened. He has also illustrated more than forty trade and educational books for children, including the highly-praised Summer Sun Risin’ and Black All Around!, published by Lee & Low Books; She Loved Baseball; and Ron’s Big Mission. Tate and his family live in Austin, Texas. He can be found online at dontate.com 
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R. Gregory Christie
is a three-time winner of the Coretta Scott King Illustrator Award Honor. His work for Lee & Low includes two books that won this award: The Palm of My Heart and Brothers in Hope. Christie has also been twice recognized on The New York Times Best Illustrated Children’s Books list. He currently paints in the evenings while traveling around the country doing school visits. His website is gas-art.com .
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