Levi Strauss Gets a Bright Idea: A Fairly Fabricated Story of a Pair of Pants [Hardcover]

Wild West chaos and creative problem solving are the force behind a well-loved American institution.

What’s a California miner to do when gold dust sifts right out of his holey pockets? With such a raggedy wardrobe, he may as well be mining in the vanilla (that is, his birthday suit)! Good thing Levi Strauss is out west, ready with his needle and a head full of bright ideas. With some quick thinking, quicker stitching, and handy arithmetic, Levi keeps all the gold rushers clothed—and becomes a modern American hero. A Wild West tall tale,Levi Strauss Gets a Bright Ideacelebrates creativity, innovation, and the ubiquitous item that fills the closets of grateful jeans wearers worldwide.

Johnston creates an unrepentantly exaggerated version of events that is sure to entertain, offering more factual information about Strauss in an author's note. Using a bright idea of his own, Innerst (Lincoln Tells a Joke) chronicles the raucous action in acrylic paintings on a canvas of, yes, old Levi's jeans. The denim's texture provides an appropriately rugged tone to the colorful proceedings. --Publishers Weekly, starred review

 

An outlandish whopper of a tall tale, this story just begs to be read aloud with an old-timey Western accent. Johnston weaves together fact and fiction, resulting in a hilarious narrative about how Strauss became the denim king... A first choice for any collection, this book is worth its weight in denim–or gold. --School Library Journal,starred review

 

Johnston antes up the readaloudabl“B