Big Men, Big Country: A Collection of American Tall Tales - Hardcover

Walker, Paul Robert

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0152071369 ISBN 13: 9780152071363

Publisher: Harcourt Childrens Books, 1993

Synopsis

In the great spirit of American storytelling, this anthology features nine tales about such legendary American heroes as John Henry, Paul Bunyon, and Pecos Bill. By the author of The Slugger's Club: A Sports Mystery.

About this title

About the Author:

Paul Robert Walker lives in Escondido, California.
James Bernardin lives in Seattle, Washington.

From School Library Journal:

Grade 3-6-- This collection acquaints or, in many cases, reacquaints readers with such familiar tall-tale personages as Paul Bunyan, John Henry, and Pecos Bill. In addition, some new characters, John Darling of the Catskills and Ol' Gabe of Yellowstone, continue the tradition in anecdotal sketches. Told with an appropriate blend of down-home dialect and vocabulary, with descriptive locale included, these stories are replete with humor and exaggeration. The relative brevity of each of the nine stories makes the book useful for story hours or classroom read-alouds. The full-page, full-color illustrations, one per story, are satisfyingly heroic in their dimensions. These figures are a bit static in their settings, however; movement seems to have been sacrificed to size. Some smaller black-and-white drawings are sprinkled throughout; several of these provide a better sense of movement and activity. Because there have been several noteworthy collections published recently, such as San Souci's Larger Than Life (Doubleday, 1991) and Osborne's American Tall Tales (Knopf, 1991), this one may be considered useful only for libraries with extensive, heavily used folklore collections. Walker's carefully researched bibliography, citing many original sources, and his blending of several anecdotes to create slightly different story lines, invite comparison and contrast when these heroes are studied. --Martha Rosen, Edgewood School, Scarsdale, NY
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Harcourt Childrens Books
• Publication date: 1993
• ISBN 10: 0152071369
• ISBN 13: 9780152071363
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 79
• Illustrator: Bernardin James