Appalachian Folktale Picture Books: Tall Tales
Compiled by Tina L. Hanlon
Back to Folktale Bibliography Index and General Picture Book List
Notes: Many titles below contain direct links to AppLit's Annotated Index of Appalachian Folktales. Beginning in summer 2001, more details are being added to those annotations than to entries on this page. However, some entries on the picture book pages are based on folk songs or tales not grouped with others in the Annotated Index. Tall tales in longer books are listed with folktale collections.
Many other Appalachian folktales, especially Jack Tales, are like tall tales when they contain exaggerated and humorous images and actions, or pourquoi tale plot elements—stories about the origins of things. See AppLit's Tall Tales and Jack Tales: Literature and Writing Activities. For examples (including audio files), student activities, and teaching materials on tall tales, see also Tall Tales web site (from Hortonville, WI schools) and Folk Heroes section of teaching unit West Virginia's Appalachian Music and Literature (formerly in West Virginia's World School web site, now reprinted in AppLit).
Carmer, Elizabeth and Carl. Tony Beaver, Griddle Skater. Illus. Mimi Korach. Champaign, IL: Garrard Publishing, 1965. "Tony Beaver, West Virginia woodsman and champion griddle skater of the Southern States, challenges his cousin Paul Bunyan to a griddle skating race" (WorldCat).
Ford, Ann. Davy Crockett. Illus. Leonard Vosburgh. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1961. "A see and read book." Recommended by NEA's Read Across America program, Sate-by-State Booklist.
Glass, Andrew. Bewildered for Three Days: As to Why Daniel Boone Never Wore His Coonskin Cap. New York: Holiday House, 2000. An original tall tale about Daniel Boone as a child, learning woodland skills from Delaware and Lenape friends. Far-fetched encounters with a bear and raccoons explain why he stopped wearing a coonskin cap. Framed by a fictional story about Boone as an adult telling this story to a painter. Detailed historical background given in Afterward. See also books by Tom Birdseye illustrated by Glass in general folktale picture book bibliography and tall tale by Schroeder, below. Glass (a New Yorker) has written and illustrated a number of books about tough legendary heroes from the West and South, as well as an adaptation of The Bremen Town Musicians.
Isaacs, Anne.
Swamp
Angel. Illus.
Paul O. Zelinsky. New York: Dutton, 1994.
N. pag. Introduces a tall-tale heroine as awesome as Paul Bunyan or Pecos
Bill. Paul O. Zelinsky's dramatic paintings depict Swamp Angel's growth into
"the greatest woodswoman in Tennessee" and her impact on the landscape
when her long struggle with a bear stirs up enough dust to create the atmosphere
of the Smoky Mountains.
Jensen, Patsy. John Henry and His Mighty Hammer. Illus. Roseanne Litzinger. A Troll First-Start Tall Tale. Troll, 1994.
Justus, May. Eben and the Rattlesnake. Illus. Carol Wilde. Champaign, IL: Garrard Publishing, 1969. This 48-page picture book weaves the tall tale into a realistic story about Eben Holder and his farm family in No-End Hollow. In The Right House for Rowdy, an old man tells the same tall tale within a slightly longer realistic story about a pup that needs a doghouse. See bibliography Books by May Justus.
Keats, Ezra Jack. John Henry: An American Legend. New York: Dragon Fly Books, 1965. Teacher Resource File on Keats at JMU.
Kellogg, Steven. Sally Ann Thunder Ann Whirlwind Crockett. New York: Mulberry, 1995. One of Kellogg's many humorous, colorful tall tale retellings. In this version of her life, Sally Ann is born in the mountains of Kentucky, able to beat her brothers and others in various contests of strength and speed. She has many adventures (based on 8 tales in Davy Crockett's almanacs, 1834-56): she scares a bear out of its skin, "invents" bald eagles, marries Davy Crockett, causes a tornado of flying alligators, and flings tall tale hero Mike Fink 5 miles up the Mississippi River. See cover and description at Nancy Keane's Booktalks, brief review at Childrenslit.com, Teacher Resource File on Steven Kellogg at JMU. Recommended by NEA's Read Across America program, Sate-by-State Booklist.
Lester, Julius. John Henry. Illus. Jerry Pinkney. New York: Dial, 1994.
Quackenbush, Robert. Quit Pulling My Leg! A Story of Davy Crockett. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1987.
Schanzer, Rosalyn. Davy Crockett Saves the World. New York: HarperCollins, 2001. Based on the Davy Crockett almanacs published in the 19th century, claiming "every single word is true, unless it is false." Crockett is "the greatest woodsman who ever lived," who "could whip ten times his weight in wildcats and drink the Mississippi River dry." His bear Death Hug and girlfriend Sally Sugartree participate in his fantastic exploits. Among Crockett's impossible feats, he saves the world from Halley's Comet in response to an ad from the President. A pourquoi episode at the end explains why he wears his coonskin cap after taking on a comet. Carolyn Phelan (in Booklist) wrote,"the vivid language places the story squarely in the tradition of American tall tales, where exaggeration is not just allowed, it's celebrated."
Schroeder, Alan. The Tale of Willie Monroe. Illus. Andrew Glass. New York: Clarion, 1999. Schroeder adapted a Japanese folktale about a wrestler and three strong women. His Appalachian tale is about a muscle-bound man who wants to enter "an arm-wrestlin', log-stackin', cow-milkin', field-plowin', barn-raisin' contest" to win money and ten acres of free land. He is put in his place and then helped by two strong women. Paul Bunyan wasn't man enough to win the hand of Delilah but Willie is after the women train him, even though Granny can still out-wrestle him in the end.
Page created August
2002. Last update: 01/22/2007
Links checked 12/21/03
