New York: J.B. Lippincott. ISBN: 0397315759.
This book is a collection of different tall tales, as the title implies. The stories are all short, ranging from a sentence at the least to about three pages max. The book includes stories with actual plots as well as one-liners. All of the stories are humorous. The majority of them consist of someone telling a crazy story that makes them look especially brave or strong or skilled in some area, which shows that these traits were important when these tales were created.
What�s interesting about this collection is the use of a more realistic dialect when the stories are being told in first person. For instance, there�s a line in one of the stories where the story teller says, �Seems like that bullet skittered over thar some way an� split th� limb they was a �settin� on, an� ketched their feet in th�crack!� This gives an oral quality to the writing. As I was reading, it was if I was actually listening to some old man sitting on his front porch telling this story.
I was surprised to find that I had never heard of the majority of these stories or one liners. One of the few I had heard of was �It rained so hard one day that people had to jump into the river to keep from drowning.�
The stories are so ridiculously funny and unbelievable that they will keep any child amused.
