Jim Kjelgaard always tells a good story outstandingly well. He has an unusual subject in Hi Jolly—the little-known Camel Corps that did so much to open up our great Southwest. In particular, it is the thrilling tale of Hadji Ali (Americanized into Hi Jolly), the fugitive young Syrian camel driver who sought refuge in America with his loyal companion, Ben Akbar, the magnificent riding camel, to help survey a wagon road across the desert land between Fort Defiancé and the California border, bridging the final gap in a transcontinental highway. Jim Kjelgaard did on-the-spot research for his fascinating book, discovering the grave of the real Hi Jolly in Iuartzite and "visiting every place in the Southwest where there'd ever been a camel or even a rumor of a camel." Kendall Rossi's fine drawings bring out the excitement, humor and touching quality of this fine book to perfection.
Author
an American author of young adult literature. Born in New York City, New York, Jim Kjelgaard is the author of more than forty novels, the most famous of which is 1945's "Big Red." It sold 225,000 copies by 1956 and was made into a 1962 Walt Disney film with the same title, Big Red. His books were primarily about dogs and wild animals, often with animal protagonists and told from the animal's point of view. Jim Kjelgaard committed suicide in 1959, after suffering for several years from chronic pain and depression.
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