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Alvin Schwartz and Glen Rounds team up once again to preserve the heritage of American folklore in this hilarious compilation of word tricks and verbal hocus-pocus. The compilation of funny folklore has lots of riddles with ridiculous answers, very tall talk and an endless array of tales.
Elaborates on the events recounted in the fairy tale, “Rumpelstiltskin,” in which a strange little man helps a miller’s daughter spin straw into gold for the king on the condition that she will give him her first-born child.
When a huge white whale gets stuck between the banks of the Mississippi River causing the water to stop flowing, Jean Laffite finds a way to get the river moving again.
An accidental encounter with a thorn bush on his way to the spring dance has Davy Crockett kicking up his heels and out-dancing even the audacious Miss Sally Ann Thunder Ann Whirlwind.
Traces the history and gives examples of puns, shaggy-dog stories, and other jokes from American humor of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
This version of the Cinderella story features a troll living under a bridge who finds an invitation to a ball, where she dances with Prince Charming.
This handsome volume brings together eighteen American stories from eleven states, all of which are based on traditional tales of the European cultures that had the earliest influence on this country-the British Isles, France, Spain, and Germany. Some stories are variants of familiar favorites like “Snow White” (“A Stepchild That Was Treated Mighty Bad”), while others, like “The Little Bull with the Golden Horns,” are less well known; some are funny, some poignant. All share a characteristic freshness, energy, and informality that mark them as purely American. Vividly colored illustrations in the style of American folk art add humor and charm to this collection of lively, colloquial tales-tales that just beg to be read aloud. An authoritative introduction and notes place each in its folkloric context.
J. Jupiter Jackson, a potato farmer, discovers he is a genius at jigsaw puzzles, and so one winter he leaves the farm and his animals to seek fame and fortune.
A collection of American tall tales featuring such legendary characters as Davy Crockett, Paul Bunyan, and Pecos Bill.
Anna and her brother, Tom, have always wanted a pet. And after their latest pestering campaign, their mother finally gives in and lets them choose a pair of hamsters from the local pet shop. But their happiness soon turns to horror when the hamsters are found mysteriously dead in their cage. Anna and Tom launch a full-scale investigation to determine who—or what—is behind the hamster homicides. Can they solve the case of the Great Hamster Massacre? Katie Davies’ irresistibly funny mystery and Hanna Shaw’s spot-on illustrations combine for a quirky, delightful read that is part detective tale, part diary, and altogether hilarious.