Content area
The Journey of Oliver K. Woodman by Darcy Pattison and illustrated by Joe Cepeda is reviewed.
Full text
The Journey of Oliver K. Woodman Written by Darcy Pattison Illustrated by Joe Cepeda Harcourt, 2003, ISBN 0-15-202329-1.
Tameka misses Uncle Ray so she writes, asking him to visit her in California. Uncle Ray fashions a wooden man-Oliver K. Woodman-and sends him instead. Oliver's backpack contains a letter asking for a ride and requesting that the driver notify Uncle Ray so he knows where Oliver's travels have taken him. Oliver rides with a bull in the back of a truck, hangs out with kids on a park bench in Arkansas, accompanies a truck driver across Oklahoma and Texas, and winds up on a reservation in New Mexico, before riding in a parade with Miss Utah. He joins three gray-haired sisters touring the West and protects campers by scaring away bears before he's delivered to California. oil over acrylic illustrations show Cepeda's characteristically happy people enjoying life. Revealed only through illustrations, Tameka is a biracial child with a white father and a black mother.
Copyright National Council of Teachers of English Conference on College Composition and Communication Mar 2005