(Amazon.com)
Bibliographic Information
McKissack, Patricia c. 2006. PORCH LIES: TALES OF SLICKSTERS, TRICKSTERS, AND OTHER WILY CHARACTERS. Ill. by Andre Carrilho. New York, NY: Schwartz & Wade Books. ISBN 978037583619.
Plot and Critical Analysis
In these nine tales are clever characters who with sneaky charm get everything from free pie to proving a point. The styles of language used depends on which family friend of the authors was telling the story. The strong southern accents in the dialog make the reader feel as though he or she is sitting on that same front porch in Tennessee. All good natured stories about quick witted people, not bad in moral, but just a sliver of sneakiness. In each story there are children present, often the only ones able to see through the tricks of these wily characters, which will make any child listening or reading these stories suddenly grow a little taller with pride at the idea that children are smarter than adults. There are stories of being tempted by the devil, but choosing the righteous path, and stories of redemption, similar to A Christmas Carol and visiting ghosts. The characters met may have tricks up their sleeves, but most often their hearts are in the right place. These are tales of entertainment that offer morals of kindness, good decision making, honesty, and how anyone can decide on any day to change their behavior for the better.
The stories take place in the south, but are not of one specific area. More importantly than the specific settings is the sense community in each tale. Neighbors are aware and concerned for other neighbors, defending each others honors as well as properties. The readers will find that a sense of community and family is just as strong as the words spoken in each story. Carrilho's illustrations, all black and white, and distorted images of characters in each tale, often focused on the emotion - be it guilt, sorrow, fear, or happiness. The illustrations could easily be portraits hanging in galleries, but instead add both a visual element as well as a personal touch to each of its characters. Both imaginative and unusual, the images stick with the reader even after the page is turned. The language and illustrations are both common for African American modern pieces. The southern accents are emphasized as well as intelligence and modern vocabulary, but with a slight lazy southern drawl attached. As for the images, they are African American characters in style of charactatures - warm and familiar looking or exaggerated emotions.
Awards and Reviews
Awards
ALA Notable Children’s Books: All Ages Category, 2007
Parents’ Choice Awards: Fiction, 2006
Coretta Scott King Award: The Dark-Thirty: Southern Tales of the Supernatural: Goin' Someplace Special
Booklist, Starred Review
... Without using dialect, her intimate folk idiom celebrates the storytelling among friends, neighbors, and family as much as the stories themselves. "Some folk believe the story; some don't. You decide for yourself." Is the weaselly gravedigger going to steal a corpse's jewelry, or does he know the woman is really still alive? Can bespectacled Aunt Gran outwit the notorious outlaw Jesse James? In black and white, Carrilho's full-page illustrations--part cartoon, part portrait in silhouette--combine realistic characters with scary monsters. History is always in the background (runaway slaves, segregation cruelty, white-robed Klansmen), and in surprising twists and turns that are true to trickster tradition, the weak and exploited beat powerful oppressors with the best lies ever told. Great for sharing, on the porch and in the classroom. -- Hazel Rochman (Reviewed 05-15-2006) (Booklist, vol 102, number 18, p46)
School Library Journal
–These 10 literate stories make for great leisure listening and knowing chuckles. Pete Bruce flatters a baker out of a coconut cream pie and a quart of milk; Mingo may or may not have anything smaller than a 100-dollar bill to pay his bills; Frank and Jesse James, or “the Howard boys,” help an old woman against the KKK-ish Knights of the White Gardenia; and Cake Norris wakes up dead one day–again. Carrilho’s eerie black-and-white illustrations, dramatically off-balance, lit by moonlight, and elongated like nightmares, are well-matched with the stories. The tales are variously narrated by boys and girls, even though the author’s preface seems to set readers up for a single, female narrator in the persona of McKissack herself. They contain the “essence of truth but are fiction from beginning to end,” an amalgam of old stories, characters, jokes, setups, and motifs. As such, they have no provenance. Still, it would have helped readers unfamiliar with African-American history to have an author’s note helping separate the “truth” of these lies that allude to Depression-era African-American and Southern traditions. That aside, they’re great fun to read aloud and the tricksters, sharpies, slicksters, and outlaws wink knowingly at the child narrators, and at us foolish humans.–Susan Hepler, formerly at Burgundy Farm Country Day School, Alexandria, VA --Susan Hepler (Reviewed September 1, 2006) (School Library Journal, vol 52, issue 9, p212)
Connections
Storytelling is an art and this book makes it easy to feel like a storyteller. In fact, I found myself reading portions out loud and with an exaggerated southern accent. It offers an escapism into a time when people did still on porches into the night sharing stories, truths, and lies. The style if very specific of a porch sitter in the south dating back to a simpler time. With old fashioned sayings appearing in most stories, the reader will quickly feel in a different time with different people. Culturally speaking, these tales of tricksters represent a south that even I don't frequent, and I am from the south. One could continue this activity with similar tall-tales, geographically focused stories, or even in a writing activity to create their own stories of ghosts, tricksters, and life lessons.
Similar Readings:
African-American Folktales for Young Readers: Including Favorite Stories from African and African-American Storytellers (Collected and edited by Richard Alan Young and Judy Dockrey Young): Similar styles of stories, from a similar demographic, in a similar time.
A ring of tricksters: animal tales from America, the West Indies, and Africa (Virginia Hamilton): Similar entertaining folktales, but about animals. Could also be linked to other fairy tales (like the previously mentioned Cinderella) and become a conversation piece for comparing cultures and different countries.
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