the fascinating women of American Folklore and Legend in this awardwinning collection!
Have you heard of the Star Maiden, Old Sally
Cato, or Sweet Betsey from Pike
Everyone knows about Paul Bunyan, Johnny Appleseed, and Davy Crockett, But have you heard of these largerthanlife women From Bess Call, who wrestles any and all challengers, to Molly Cottontail, who can outwit any critter iin the woods, to Hekeke, who slays a giant singlehandedly, here are fifteen funny, stormy, and always entertaining tall tales of legendary American women.
They're as difference as can be, but still cut from the same cloth,
"An impressive and gratifying collection that's a cut above other such compilations, "School Library Journal
Winner of the Aesop Prize I was not a big fan of this book, I did not think it caught my attention, There was one story of the many that stood out to me, That book was molly Cotton tail, I love the way it was told and interacted with the culture in so many diffrent ways, Great for storytelling! Although there are actually and in fact many folk and fairytale examples where women are the heroines, where female characters play the active and main roles, it is unfortunately still often the case, that these types of tales do tend to get rather overlooked and not be taken all that seriously both with regard to the stories, the folk and fairytales themselves and equally, with regard to scholarly, folkloric studies and research.
And therefore, Robert D. San Souci's Cut From the Same Cloth: American Women of Myth, Legend and Folklore is not only truly and utterly a wonderful reading pleasure and treat, no, this book is also very much an important if not an essential compilation as it features not only fifteen shining examples of American folklore where strong women are the main protagonists, the main heroines, but also provides detailed analyses, folkloric comparisons and source materials, not to mention a bibliography that is to die for, that is both intensive and extensive, presenting, featuring current, contemporary as well as more historical tomes of both primary and secondary examples, of both collections of tales and analyses, interpretations of folklore.
As to the collected stories themselves, Robert D, San Souci's retellings are alive with both realism and magic, culturally sensitive as required, showing the fifteen chosen heroines Native American, African American, AngloAmerican and one tale from Hawaii in all their different guises and glories, lively, engaged, strong and courageous, simply wonderful, and the only reason I have not rated Cut From the Same Cloth: American Women of Myth, Legend and Tall Tale with five is that I personally, would rather see the fifteen stories presented not by geographic regions, but by the type of tale, the genre of folklore they represent.
Most highly and warmly recommended, with Brian Pinkney's accompanying black and white illustrations providing a lovely, descriptively evocative decorative trim but also thankfully, never interfering with or distracting from the texts, from the actual tales themselves, and in my humble opinion, Cut From the Same Cloth: American Women of Myth, Legend and Tall Tale is truly one of Robert D.
San Souci's best and most folklorically rich, academically researched and important collections for as already mentioned, there is still very much a dearth of folklore collections featuring women as main protagonists, an unfortunate scenario that this here brilliant offering has indeed done much to rectify.
As suggested in sitelinkExcellent Books for Early and Eager Readers Tbh, I'm personally not a fan of woodcut style art, or dialect, I'm not sure pourquoi stories were a good fit, either I was hoping for a focus on the Tall Tale type of story like Annie Christmas, I appreciate the good intentions and the research that went into this, but it just doesn't quite work for me and I don't feel comfortable recommending it either, . . just like any sampler, there will be stronger and weaker pieces, America is graced by the strength, bravery, and cunning of many girl heroines, but we seldom hear their stories, This collection introduces many of them there are stories from the Chippewa, Anglo Americans, African Americans, Pueblo, Tewa, Mexican American, Miwok, Eskimo, and Hawaiian, Each story, accompanied by a wellresearched introduction, is told with the rhythm and cadence one would expect from a storyteller sitting round a campfire, Probably my favorite of these, because of my fondness for river lore, is the story of Sal Fink, the daughter of Mike Fink, According to San Souci, the stories of Sal Fink, “thrilled Americans: from thes through thes" and give us a glimpse of what it was like before the advent of the steam boat.
This story tells some of the feats she was credited for, and of how she defeated pirates who had captured her singlehandedly, It was said that her victory cry could be heard from the "headwaters of the Ohio to the mouth of the Mississippi, " The prints of Brian Pinkney's engravings are full of life and motion, and the whimsy of the style does well to support the strength and beauty of the stories.
This is an invaluable collection for the classroom for many reasons, First, there are representations from so many diverse cultural groups, and without pretense, Second, the stories focus on women, who are highly unrepresented in the mainstream canon, especially in folklore and tall tales, Further, these stories are told with accuracy, in an incredibly engaging voice, and each of them have an introduction that puts the story in cultural and historical context, San Souci's source notes and bibliography provide an extensive wealth of information, which also makes this book suitable as a jumping off point for students to possibly make a project of finding another tall tale or legend and making a classroom book of the tall tales that interest them, or that are geographically or culturally specific to them.
Enjoyed hearing the stories from the various regions, There were some very good stories about women in here, A whole book with stories of interesting women and only the last one did not fall to the trap of the Smurfette Principle, The organization of the book was interesting, stories were broken up by region, I'm not sure if this was for the best, I did enjoy that before the telling of each myth the author provided back story regarding the culture and history of the people it belonged to, America has been diverse from the very start.
This book looked at myths from African Americas, Mexican Americans, Anglo Americans, and various Native American tribes,
My personal favorites were "The Star Maiden" from the Chippewa people and "Otoonah" an Eskimo tale, These were very unique and interesting, Some of the other stories began to bleed together, which tended to bore me, For example, there were a number of stories about giant strong women,"Annie Christmas", "Sal Fink", "Bess Call" perhaps these could have combined somehow, it just got too repetitive.
Over all, a very interesting collection that is both fun to read and provides interesting insight to the early mythologies of our country, I really liked all the books that was in Cut From The Same Cloth, All of them were adventures and never had me bored, My favorite book was probably Annie Christmas, I recommend this book to people that like folktales and fables because this book has most of those, I'll be honest . I read most of it, Nice to see a book with tall tales of women, Cute. Genre: Traditional Fantasy
Grade Level: Middle Grades
I was really glad I could find a tall tales book that focused entirely on women! All of these stories were new to me and I really enjoyed that they took from all the regions and areas of the United States AND that they included so many different cultures! I believe that this book is a great classroom tool because it not only features women but also has references to many cultures.
AR MG.pts I registered a book at BookCrossing, com!
sitelink BookCrossing. com/journal/.