American Tall Tales by Mary Pope Osborne

Their exaggerated feats of courage and endurance helped the backwoodsman face the overwhelming task of developing such a land. The heroes and heroines of the tales were like the land itself-gigantic, extravagant, restless, and flamboyant. TALL TALK, OR EXAGGERATED storytelling, began in the 1800s as a way for Americans to come to terms with the vast and inhospitable lands they’d come to inhabit-thick, dark forests filled with bears and panthers treeless, arid deserts and plains towering mountains and uncharted seacoasts. Whose tools helped to engrave these pictures The wood engravings for this book were cut from single blocks of end-grain maple, and the color was added with watercolor to the final print.Īnd with special thanks to my editor, Anne Schwartz Summary: A collection of tall tales about such American folk heroes as Paul Bunyan, Sally Ann Thunder Ann Whirlwind, Pecos Bill, and John Henry. American tall tales / by Mary Pope Osborne illustrated by Michael McCurdy. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Distributed by Random House LLC, New York. Knopf, a division of Random House LLC, New York, and simultaneously in Canada by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto, Penguin Random House Companies. Published in the United States by Alfred A. Illustrations copyright © 1991 by Michael McCurdy.Īll rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. Text copyright © 1991 by Mary Pope Osborne. This, Mary says, is true magic.THIS IS A BORZOI BOOK PUBLISHED BY ALFRED A. But one of the greatest adventures of Mary's writing life is the creative journey she takes with her readers, meeting them in person in schools and bookstores and reading the wonderful stories and letters they send. With Jack and Annie, she has traveled through time, from the prehistoric land of dinosaurs to the imaginary world of Camelot. The books that have taken Mary to the most places are the Magic Tree House series.

She has written almost a hundred books, including biographies, mysteries, picture books, novels and retellings of fairy tales and world mythology. Writing children's books was a perfect career for Mary because she could still travel all over the world - but be back home in time for dinner. Her dad was in the army, so every year or two her family would move to a different state, or even a different country! By the time she was fifteen, Mary had lived in thirteen different houses and gone to eight different schools! Mary Pope Osborne was born into adventure.

American Tall Tales by Mary Pope Osborne