Tall Tales, Taller Tales, and Out and Out Lies


Book Description

Most of these stories are true. Some are fabrications. "The Gun Show" is one. It is a loose interpretation of an event. If you are familiar with the event, you will understand the satire. The stories, such as "The Great Possum Slayer", tell of a hunting adventure. We are all guilty of doing something to a friend in the name of fun. "The night Before Christmas" describes a practical joke that turned out better than planned! Several stories, as an example, "BB'S & Bumblebees", reflect on our desire to imitate our parents. Several of the stories convey a safety message. "The Hazards of Plastic Bullets", is an example that shows what can happen in the blink of an eye when we choose to disregard a simple safety statement. Some of the stories deal with older people and a time not so long ago. These people believed that you took care of your problem. You will notice in these stories, the problem would have gone away or been taken care of long before law enforcement could arrive. With our modern communications we can now summon the Calvary in an instant. It has not been too long ago that this was not the case in a lot of areas of our great nation. "The Letter", is an adaptation of a letter I want read at my funeral. Surprise, fear, courage, fortitude and a child's belief that they are bullet proof are all expressed in stories in this book. A book of this nature easily causes us to reflect on our lives and events that have slipped into our fading memory. If this book reminds a single individual of any similar events in their past, makes them a safer individual, or makes them laugh it will have succeed in its purpose beyond expectations.




Lies and Other Tall Tales


Book Description

LIES AND OTHER TALL TALES These tales are so tall they touch the sky! From Caldecott Honor artist Christopher Myers and Zora Neale Hurston. While traveling in the Gulf States in the 1930s, Zora Neale Hurston collected and recorded some real whoppers told by folks from all walks of life. Not "dog ate my homework" kind of lies, but tales so wild you didn't ever want to hear the truth. And now today's picture–book readers can enjoy these far–fetched fibs, with Caldecott Honor artist Christopher Myers's spirited adaption and bold, expressive collages.







Whoppers


Book Description

A collection of tall tales involving animals, the weather, narrow escapes, and many other topics.




The Complete Grimm's Fairy Tales


Book Description

A truly complete collection of fairy tales from the Brothers Grimm featuring color plates and illustrations from award-winning illustrator, Arthur Rackham.




Lies My Mother Told Me


Book Description

If you think Joan Rivers said funny, outrageous, and ridiculous things ONSTAGE, wait ’til you read the funny, outrageous, and ridiculous things she said OFFSTAGE…things that will make you laugh out loud…and keep Melissa in therapy for the foreseeable future. The only thing my mother loved more than making people laugh was lying…or as she’d say, “embellishing.” Her motto was: “Why let the truth ruin a good story?” This book contains some of those stories. ***************** “When Joan told a story, the truth disappeared faster than I did.” — Jimmy Hoffa “If you thought Dante’s Inferno was hot, read Lies My Mother Told Me; it’s a five-alarmer.” — Dante’s second wife, Allie “Twelve of my twenty-six personalities loved this book.” — Sybil “The words on the page absolutely crackle and spark; I burned my fingers reading it!” — Annie Sullivan “The Bible may be the good book, but Lies My Mother Told Me is way funnier.” — Matthew 2:14 The Jets. 7 “Lies My Mother Told Me is the feel-good book of 2022.” — Torquemada “All’s not well that ends well. I’ve had massages with happier endings.” — Wm. Shakespeare “Melissa, I don’t care what your mother said in this book, I LOVE your bangs.” — Mamie Eisenhower “Lies My Mother Told Me is so funny even those ‘woke’ m***********s will laugh.” — Lenny Bruce




Stories, Tall Tales and Lies


Book Description




Mark Twain and the Art of the Tall Tale


Book Description

Mark Twain and the Art of the Tall Tale explores a predominantly American comic strategy and its role in Mark Twain's fiction. Focusing on the writer's experiments with narrative structure, Wonham describes how Twain manipulated conventional approaches to reading and writing by engaging his audience in a series of rhetorical games - the rules of which he adapted from the conventions of the tall tale in American oral and written traditions. After surveying the rich history of yarn-spinning in America, Wonham traces Twain's appropriation of the genre through the course of his career, from The Innocents Abroad to Tom Sawyer, Huck Finn, and Pudd'nhead Wilson. He contends that as Twain turned from short sketches to extended travelogues and quasi-fiction, he found in the tall tale a means of dramatizing his disparate comic material. Later, as Twain worked consciously to purge his writing of its anecdotal quality, the oral genre remained central to his imagination - less as a source of comic material than as a paradigmatic encounter between competing points of view, an encounter that resonates throughout the author's major fiction. Offering an original interpretation of Twain's narrative and rhetorical techniques, this absorbing and readable study will interest Twain enthusiasts and students of nineteenth-century American literature, as well as anyone interested in American humor and oral narrative traditions.




The Tall Tale in American Folklore and Literature


Book Description

To Carolyn Brown s mind, the tall tale is not necessarily an account of the adventures of a larger-than-life hero, nor is it just a humorous first-person narrative exaggerated to outlandish proportions. It is as well an interaction between teller and audience a game played at the hazy border between the credible and the incredible, a challenge and an entertainment at the same time. The tall tale is also a social statement that identifies and binds a folk group by flaunting the peculiar knowledge and experiences of group members, and it is a tool for coping with a stressful or even chaotic world, for conquering life s problems by laughing at them.




Stories & Fairy Tales


Book Description