Papa Alonzo Leatherby

When Papa Alonzo Leatherby’s tall tales about New England freeze solid one extra cold winter, they have to be thawed out and preserved in ingenious ways.

American Fairy Tales: From Rip Van Winkle To The Rootabaga Stories

Includes works and discussion of Washington Irving, Horace E. Scudder, M.S.B., Frank Stockton, Howard Pyle, Louisa May Alcott, L. Frank Baum, Laura E. Richards, Ruth Plumly Thompson, Will Bradley, Carl Sandburg, and Neil Philip.

The Tale of Willie Monroe

An adaptation, set in the American South, of an old Japanese folktale in which a powerful wrestler who hopes to win the Emperor’s Wrestling Match encounters three exceptionally strong women who train him for success.

The Bourbon Street Musicians

In this rollicking retelling of “The Bremen Town Musicians,” a creaky old jack mule, a droopy hound dog, a ragged rooster, and a bony cat, all unwanted and no longer loved, set out for Bourbon Street in New Orleans to play bebop and make their fortune. Presently they encounter a band of thieves in a shack by a bayou, and though things don’t turn out quite as expected, they end up mighty fine just the same. A bluesy dialect that begs to be read aloud, vivid imagery, and distinctively comic illustrations infuse the adventures of these four determined friends with the flavor of rural Louisiana and the rhythm of New Orleans jazz. Glossary.

The Talking Eggs

A Southern folktale in which kind Blanche, following the instructions of an old witch, gains riches, while her greedy sister makes fun of the old woman and is duly rewarded.

Tailypo: A Newfangled Tall Tale

On a farm in the Texas Hill Country, a young boy confronts a strange critter that tries to steal his family’s last meal. A variation on the folktale about a monster that leaves its tail behind in the cabin of an African American boy.