Osbourne, M. P. (1991). American tall tales. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.


Have you ever wondered about the "true" story of Paul Bunyan and Johnny Appleseed? If so, this book is for you! 
Find out that Johnny Appleseed was a real person, which I did not realize before reading, and that Pecos Bill is completely fictional. Each story is interesting and captivating and links to history in some way.


American Tall Tales is traditional literature because the stories have been passed down from generation to generation over time. There are probably many versions of each story, but the author did her research and tried to find the original stories that began so many years ago. 
So many children enjoy hearing about people from long ago and are fascinated by these tales as if their grandparents or parents or teachers telling the stories were really there to see it firsthand.

The book is structured in chapters for each historical figure and contains a table of contents for easy navigation. The organization of the book is set up very well with an introduction from the author describing what led her to write the book and how she ventured on the journey of finding the original stories that we all know and enjoy. Each chapter is accompanied by illustrations that help develop the story and characters of each story. The chapters are fairly short in length, but are exciting and filled with intriguing characters. Before each story there is a section called "Notes on the story" that describes the setting and the true history of the time period and how the character and story came about. 


It might be a good idea to use a literary journal while reading this book and create two pages side by side for each character. If the teacher were reading aloud the students could use the left page to draw pictures to help them remember important facts about the character and events. On the right side page they could jot down important words and phrases describing the character and the story. 


BIG question: Based on your knowledge of American Tall Tales, how would you describe the characters similarities? 
Create a character and a story similar to the stories in American Tall Tales.