American Tall Tales

Osborne, M.P. (1991). American tall tales. New York: Knopf.

American Tall Tales comes from our syllabus’ multicultural/traditional reading list.  I chose this book for a few reasons: first of all I can use it with my students (grades 1-3) and these were some of my favorite stories when I was a child.  Skimming through books in the library I was immediately drawn to American Tall Tales because of the wonderful illustrations on the book’s jacket.  The jacket features illustrations of each character from the book with Paul Bunyan serving as the center piece.  I love how the illustrator drew Paul holding a sign with the book’s title, author, and illustrator information written on it.  I also loved how the words “Wood Engravings By” are used instead of illustrator.

As a child I was always drawn to the larger than life characters that grew from these tall tales.  My dad was a logger when I was a small child so Paul Bunyan was a natural draw for me.  I love history and the outdoors so Davy Crockett was a character that I pretended to be while I was playing.  John Henry brought to mind all of the stories about the coal mines and trains that my grandfather and great uncle told me.  My grandfather was an engine operator in the Gatliff, KY coal mines.  His job was to pick up all the coal filled gongs and drive them from the depths of the mountains out to the coal tipples.  My great uncle was a large man and very strong; he worked on laying train tracks for the coal company.  Literature is much easier to relate to when your life and the story share many of the same elements.

Time is crucial in the life of an educator and “killing two birds with stone” is a welcomed sight.  Elements of these tall tales are true and can be used during instruction.  An example would be Davy Crockett; to engage my students in reading I read them the tall tale.  The story is extraordinarily entertaining and the children find it amusing.  After the story is over I asked my students to identify some of the parts of the story that are fiction and couldn’t happen.  After awhile I like to take a few minutes to recount some of Davy’s true adventures.  In his case the true story is as fascinating as the made-up story.

Another benefit of American Tall Tales is that it can double as a picture book.  There are several illustrations throughout the book that help paint a picture of important events that are occurring within each story.  The illustrations are cartoon-like and provide the reader an exaggerated view of the title characters.  I love how each story features multiple antagonists for the main characters (protagonist) to match wits with.  The antagonists are not limited to people; weather, animals, jobs, and various other problems arise that require magnificent solutions from the title characters like:  Paul and Babe straightening out an entire river, Davy grinding his teeth to sound like a sawmill, and Stormy staving off a giant sea creature.   

These tall tales are wonderful works of American traditions.  The truth has been somewhat stretched but the core meanings are still intact.  One enduring factor of these stories, to me, is the setting of each story.  These stories have a nature feel to them which is indicative of the times the tales stem from.  The time that these tales come from saw our nation as one that was agriculture based with most Americans living in rural areas.  Our nation has transformed into a new identify but our culture and beginnings will always remain interweaved with these wonderful characters and their exploits.