Grade 2-5-- When Uncle Willie visits her South Carolina home, L"il Sis begins a close relationship with the warm, understanding man that endures throughletters for many years. Uncle Willie is William H. Johnson, an African-American painter whose work (from the National Museum of American Art, Smithsonian Institution) illustrates and is the inspiration for the story. While it is unusual for a text to be written to accompany illustrations, in this case, it works beautifully. Johnson"s paintings are varied in style from a strongly textured almost impressionistic self-portrait, to a geometric, flat-toned picture of children playing by a dock, to a lively and imaginative primitive Swing Low, Sweet Chariot. He paints both historical and contemporary subjects such as L"il Sis and her doll, life in pre-World War II Harlem, and the hanging of Nat Turner. Through his art, readers and Sis come to see some of the harshness and beauty in the African-American experience. Sis"s first-person narration brings the story to a child"s level, explaining such things as the Underground Railroad. The warmth of the special uncle-niece relationship shines through and makes readers care about Uncle Willie, his artwork, and the life and places he painted.