Everybody Can Help Somebody

This children’s version of the authors’ bestselling Same Kind of Different As Me is the biography of Moore, a sharecropper’s son, and his journey from homelessness to grace. Moore grew up in a shack without electricity or running water on property owned by “The Man.” There were bright spots in his childhood, such as the bicycle The Man gave him in exchange for 100 pounds of picked cotton, and a friendship with The Man’s son. Moore’s story also includes the physical and emotional hardships he suffered: as a child, he “wanted to learn and to see new places and to have enough money to buy things of his own.” Later, Moore becomes homeless and finds that “being lonely, poor, and hungry made him mean.” But the story also describes the miraculous way in which his plight came to the attention of Hall and his wife, Miss Debbie. Moore’s folk-art scenes of country and city life complement the simplicity of the message: “Nobody can help everybody but everybody can help somebody.” The story is a realistic, heartfelt, feel-good tale of redemption. Ages 4–8. (Sept.)