Porch Lies: Tales of Slicksters, Tricksters, and Other Wily Characters

A great collection of colorful and rich story telling that reflect the historical tradition of African folk tales and legends. They are side splitting funny stories, yet they teach a lesson or give the reader a glimpse into the characters who influenced the childhood of the author. We instantly relate with our collective memory to each tale told.

Acclaimed children's author and Newberry Honnor-winner Patricia McKissack offers a new take on African American oral tradition. Blending history, legend, myth and memory, she has spun 10 wonderful "porch lies," or stories, which are sure to charm adults and children alike. Accompanied by cartoonish, even ghoulish drawings, McKissack's prose paints vivid word pictures of slick and sharp-tongued characters who overcome evil and oppressors. Destined to become a classic.

This was my introduction to Patricia McKissack. Had the great pleasure of hearing her read "Change" at a local book festival. I truly enjoyed reading this book to my fourth-grade daughter, trying to duplicate Ms. McKissack's African-American southern drawl. I felt that these very clever and fun stories would be best as read-alouds for elementary-school kids; due to the colloquialism and the tall-tale nature, an adult reader would be better able to give full color and understanding to these outstanding concoctions. Despite being an excellent reader, my child would not read this herself, and instead looked forward each night to having me dramatize the next story. Would be excellent for classroom readings.

Parents and teachers interested in read-alouds will find PORCH LIES: TALES OF SLICKSTERS, TRICKSTERS AND OTHER WILY CHARACTERS to be top-notch. Andre Carrilho provides appealing black and white drawings to spice a series of fun stories revolving around exaggeration and humor, from a little old lady who outwits Jesse James to a professional liar. Any building a strong African American collection should have PORCH LIES.

On an eight by ten sheet of paper, please explain the distinction between slicksters, tricksters and wily characters using examples of each kind to support your conjectures. You have (looks at the clock) five minutes. Go. That, if you were a teacher of diabolical means and methods, would be one way of collecting a list of ne'er do wells for your own personal collection. To be frank, though, I wouldn't recommend it. You'd have far more luck if you happened to find yourself in the presence of Patricia McKissack's remarkable, "Porch Lies" and had the wherewithal to snatch it up right quick. Ms. McKissack has always been consistently good, consistently interesting, and blessed with an ear for African-American storytelling and vernacular. Rejoice then when I tell you that her latest venture is a pip. Wonderful to read, both to oneself and aloud to an audience, these are tales that demand to be heard. Hear them then and be content, cause you'll seldom find the like again. To hear Ms. McKissack tell it, the place to be when she was a child of Nashville, Tennessee was not in the playgrounds or movie theaters of the city but on the porch of 3706 Centennnial. There, Patricia would spend her happy days listening as her grandparents, their friends, and some acquaintances reminisced about some "true" characters they had known in their day. Culling together all the best slickster-trickster tales she knew, McKissack recounts these characters after having processed them from her grandfather's "models" into 9 (or 10, depending on how you count) wholly new and original porch lies. Each story in this book is preceded by a small reminiscence of the person who was telling that tale and how they'd think to tell it in the first place. Then the real fun starts. We see poor Clovis Reed having his soul weighed against a feather and James Booker Black outwitting the devil for his own soul. We see Mingo Cass outwit a whole barbershop full of men and, in my personal favorite, sweet Dooley Hunter tell the greatest lie ever told. Every tale is recounted with a familiar feel but stands as its own original story on closer inspection. To read the book is to relax into the story and feel that you yourself are swinging on a porch swing, hearing the tales told on a breezy summer night. The range of stories really make it worth a reader's while as well. You've got your tall tales alongside your moral ones. You've lovable scalawags and the not-so-lovable prigs that find them a nuisance. The gullible exist here alongside the exceedingly clever (but lazy). Ms. McKissack's wordplay is just lovely as well. Who can resist a line like, "Cooley was a one-of-a-kind in a one-size-fits-all world"? Each story rolls trippingly off the tongue, demanding that a person read it aloud to someone. Could be to a family member or a classroom. It doesn't matter who, really. Everyone can find something in this book to get a kick out of. And it's all thanks, in part, to Ms. Mc