A NATURAL MAN, THE TRUE STORY OF JOHN HENRY by Steve Sanfield (Godine: $13.95; 48 pp.; ages 7 up).

More than 50 versions of the John Henry ballad exist in American folklore but each extolls the black “steel-driving” hero born with a hammer in his hand. Like many tall tales, this is probably based on a real person.

In this account, Steve Sanfield stretches the song into 11 pages of dramatic prose. The narrative retains the suspense and lilt of the poem with colorful language typical of oral storytelling. Read this aloud to your children, and you’re passing on a legend rich in spirit and hope. Not only does John Henry succeed with “whatever work he puts his hands and his mind to . . . he always did it better than anyone else.” He is gentle with his wife Polly and their son, Willie, honest, and while some folks think he’s a bit of a braggart, he comes through every time. “You see, his do-so was always as big as his say-so .”

Thornton’s 18 charcoal drawings show John Henry as larger-than-life, suggesting the power of this story, and reminding one of another American folk hero, Paul Bunyon. This book can also be a springboard in classrooms to help kids be curious about history: how work gangs laid tracks for the railroad, how steam drills changed the steel-drivers, the work songs and chants.

The last pages reproduce the “traditional” music with 12 refrains. You can almost hear the harmonica wail and soulful voices singing, “When John Henry was a little baby,/Setting on his mammy’s knee,/Said, ‘Big Bend Tunnel on the C. and O. ‘Road,/Gonna be the death of me, Lord, Lord,/Gonna be the death of me.”

TALKING TO THE SUN: AN ILLUSTRATED ANTHOLOGY OF POEMS FOR YOUNG PEOPLE, selected and introduced by Kenneth Koch and Kate Farrell (Holt, Rinehart & Winston: $18.95; 112 pp.; ages 6 and up). Luxurious, evocative artwork from the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York accompanies this splendid anthology of poetry, from haiku to American Indian verse, to African chants.