Grades 3 to 7
970L

Davy Crockett (Mary Pope Osborne) NY: Random House: 1991

Tall Tale Pg 4-13

Summary: Davy boasted and bragged about all his feats. One day he met a giant panther and tamed it. His boasting was put to the test when he grinned the tree smooth. He also save the world by waking up the sun and knocking it free from twin peaks of ice.

Critique: Silly story about a mans strength and ability to solve any problem.

Activity (after): What was one time you boasted or exaggerated? How did it work out?

Tall tales included: Davy Crockett, Sally Ann Thunder Ann Whirlwind, Johnny Appleseed, Stormalong, Mose, Febold Feboldson, Pecos Bill, John Henry, Paul Bunyan.

This book did a great job of giving the reader a chance to read all different tall tales that have been told throughout so many generations. The language in these tales was great. It was clear and descriptive. The author chose to retell the well loved fairytales with language that captivates the reader and keeps them into the stories. Another thing that was well done in this book was the plot. It is many traditional literature stories in one book but the plot of each story is unchanged. That means that they still follow the plot that all traditional literature follows which is very brief with no flashbacks or odd story lines. It has one conflict that gets resolved and most of them teach a lesson at the end. The main purpose of this story is to entertain. ( )

I very much enjoyed reading this book of tall tales. One reason I liked it was because it had tall tales that I have not heard and it had my favorite tall tale! My favorite tall tale is Paul Bunyan and I think this book did a great job at retelling the tale and the illustrations. I also enjoyed reading about the tales that I have never heard such as Mose. Another reason I liked this book was because of the map at the beginning of the book. It's a nice little extra feature that most traditional literature books do not have. It shows us where all the different tales take place, which I think is neat for the readers. There isn't really an overall message of the book considering it is just a book full of tall tales. This is just a book for enjoyment, and to hear and read about tall tales. ( )