You've maybe heard the tall tales of Mike Fink, but how about Sal Fink? This is a wonderful, well-researched collection of 15 myths, legends, and tall tales, each featuring women of North America. Tales are categorized by region: Women of the Northeast, The South made up of three African American stories, The Midwest, The Southwest including a Pueblo and a Mexican American tale, and The West including a story from the Miwok nation, an Eskimo tale, and a Hawaiian story. Each story is just the right length for a quick story time sharing. Brian Pinkney's scratch board illustrations suit the feel of the collection beautifully. A wonderful choice for classrooms studying traditional literature while wanting to avoid an all-male representation of tall tale heroics. ( )

american tales of strong women, San Souci excellent storyteller

Cut From the Same Cloth features fifteen stories--myth, legend, and tall tale--about women from around the United States, (including the Arctic and Hawaii). The interesting consideration for this book is that American women are celebrated for their contribution of helping to settle this New World. Jane Yolen writes in the Introduction to the book, :We have all helped make [women] mute, forgetting to tell their magic stories or, even worse, gifting their fathers and brothers and sons with their heroic deeds. Robert San Souci, [the author], is one of a hardy band of pioneers who have been rescuing the silent women, giving them back their tongues." One story that caught my attention was Annie Christmas, an African American woman who owned and operated a keelboat on the Mississippi River. Annie was a big, strong woman, reminiscent of John Henry. In this story, Annie saves the passengers on a steamboat after much dialogue with the hard-headed captain. Her efforts, in the end, prove overtaxing to her heart and she dies the next day. The concept that grabs my attention is that a black woman, who throughout most of history is considered the low of the lows, is a heroine and savior of a group of wealthy, white people.

american tales