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(3)
4-6
Ghosts of Ordinary Objects series.
When twelve-year-old Bone, a spunky storyteller, picks up an object, she experiences its history and relives scenes from its owner's past. As Bone explores this "Gift," she searches for stories--and the truth--about her mother's death. Set in Appalachia coal-mining country during WWII, Smibert's blend of history, folklore, mystery, and fantasy is a riveting start to a planned series.
32 pp.
| Pelican
| November, 2012
|
TradeISBN 978-1-4556-1690-9$16.99
(4)
K-3
Illustrated by
Marita Gentry.
In this Appalachian tale, Maw Maw needs "sody sallyraytus" (baking soda) for biscuits. She sends her family members, warning, "Beware, beware of the big bad bear!" And each time the bear eats the person. Finally, a squirrel outsmarts the bear and gets Maw Maw back in the kitchen. The text has a pleasing rhythm, though the repetition grows tiresome. The amateurish, muddy illustrations are unfortunate.
88 pp.
| North Carolina
| October, 2007
|
TradeISBN 978-0-8078-3163-2$14.95
(4)
4-6
Illustrated by
Paula McArdle.
Shelby transplants folktales featuring self-assured, active heroines to Appalachian Kentucky, providing a vivid setting (farmland as "steep as a mule's face") and recasting Molly as the plucky, quick-thinking "smidgen" of a heroine. Storytellers who overlook the book's cramped layout will relish these energetic stories, which skillfully juxtapose old-fashioned flavor and modern sensibilities. Whimsical illustrations introduce each chapter. Source notes. Bib.
40 pp.
| August
| July, 2004
|
TradeISBN 0-87483-571-2$16.95
(3)
K-3
Illustrated by
Jennifer Mazzucco.
Davis, a well-known Appalachian storyteller, has set down his version of the "Three Little Pigs," based on his grandmother's telling of the cautionary tale. Only one pig brother escapes the clutches of the fox, because only he listens to his mother's instructions to build a house of rocks and bricks. Detailed, expressive paintings depict a rural southern setting.
(2)
YA
Illustrated by
Berkeley, Jr. Williams
&
Berkeley, Jr. Williams.
American folklorist Chase compiled two stellar collections of European folktales with an unmistakable American backwoods flavor. The robust tales are all told in colorful Appalachian dialect, and the scholarly notes appended are useful for students of folklore as well as storytellers. [Review covers these titles: Grandfather Tales and The Jack Tales.]
Reviewer: Terri Schmitz
| Horn Book Magazine Issue:
May, 2043
(2)
YA
Illustrated by
Berkeley, Jr. Williams
&
Berkeley, Jr. Williams.
American folklorist Chase compiled two stellar collections of European folktales with an unmistakable American backwoods flavor. The robust tales are all told in colorful Appalachian dialect, and the scholarly notes appended are useful for students of folklore as well as storytellers. [Review covers these titles: Grandfather Tales and The Jack Tales.]
Reviewer: Terri Schmitz
| Horn Book Magazine Issue:
September, 1948
32 pp.
| Holiday
| October, 2003
|
TradeISBN 0-8234-1772-7$$16.95
(4)
K-3
Illustrated by
Jacqueline Rogers
&
Jacqueline Rogers.
Based on the folktale explaining "how the dog got its wet nose," this story has Noah building an ark in Appalachia. The illustrations, though cheerful, fail to match the text's description of the ark, which is supposedly so crowded that the dog has to keep his nose hanging outside for forty days. Nevertheless, the text's rhythmic language and Southern mountain dialect are inviting and convincing.
32 pp.
| McElderry
| June, 2002
|
TradeISBN 0-689-83902-2$$16.00
(2)
K-3
In this companion to Fearless Jack, the trickster hero repeatedly hoodwinks a two-headed, slow-witted giant and his wife. Johnson interweaves several familiar motifs from many traditions while bringing an authentic mountain twang to his telling. Johnson's lively acrylics leave no doubt that these events are as comical as they are suspenseful; the equally lively dialogue makes this an especially good read-aloud.
32 pp.
| McElderry
| June, 2001
|
TradeISBN 0-689-83296-6$$16.00
(2)
K-3
Johnson draws on tales he heard as a boy for this lively updated rendition of Appalachian variants of European tales about the boy hero-trickster. The aw-shucks tone is just right for this wily, self-deprecating hero. Johnson sets the wide-eyed Jack's agile pranks in sweeping landscapes whose spare detail is a fine foil for the humorous characterizations and the delicious perils that ensue.
Reviewer: Joanna Rudge Long
| Horn Book Magazine Issue:
September, 2001
32 pp.
| Scholastic
| September, 1999
|
TradeISBN 0-590-37658-6$$15.95
(3)
K-3
When Old Dry Frye, a preacher with a passion for fried chicken, chokes to death on a bone, his hosts, fearing charges of murder, set off an outrageous chain of events that ends when a cranky horse carries the preacher away. In the energetic illustrations for this humorous new version of an Appalachian tale, Johnson suggests that Old Dry Frye may have survived his ordeal after all.