Porch Lies: Tales of Slicksters, Tricksters, and Other Wily Characters
Common Sense Note
Parents need to know that there is little to be concerned about here, and much to be admired.
Families who read this book can discuss the morals in each story. Why are the tricksters often the most sympathetic characters? Why is it often only the children who see the good in them? Also, families may be inspired by the storytelling tradition depicted here to try telling some of their own tales.
Common Sense Review
Reviewed By: Matt Berman
The best thing about this delightful and often hilarious series of tall tales is the setting. The days of sitting around on a hot porch night after night during the summertime, sipping lemonade and swapping stories, seem so distant now -- a precious part of our common culture that's vanishing under the onslaught of media, air conditioning, and loss of community.
We'd be loath to give up the benefits of the Internet, DVDs, and controlled climate, but here, in one lovely collection of stories, is what we've given up to make room for them. Patricia McKissack will make you quite sure that the trade hasn't been to our benefit.
The stories in PORCH LIES: TALES OF SLICKSTERS, TRICKSTERS, AND OTHER WILY CHARACTERS are made even more wonderful by not being about clever spiders and turtles and coyotes, but rather about our neighbors -- ordinary people whom we can recognize, every one of them likable and charming, in relatively modern settings. They imbue the everyday with humor and magic and mystery and could be the inspiration for a few readers (and maybe even some classes) to try their own hand at creating tall tales out of everyday life. The sad thing is that most young readers will have to make them up, because they haven't had that front porch experience for themselves.
The collection is only marred by the artwork. The drawings are so weirdly stylized and caricatured that, though some may find them funny, others may find them a shade too close to a minstrel show for comfort.
From The Book
Benny positioned himself between Mingo and the door. He was so sure of himself, he pointed his finger at the man. "I bet you a year of free haircuts that you aine got nothing that looks like a hundred-dollar bill in yo' wallet," he shouted.
That's when Mingo's whole persona changed. The humble and conciliatory posture evaporated. Though he was still smiling, his eyes changed to those of a predator. If Benny had been observant, he would have seen that he was now the prey.
Plot Summary:
Ten short stories, crosses between tall tales and 20th-century trickster tales, are all told while sitting on a porch in the summertime. Most of the stories involve someone being outwitted: A baker is conned out of pie, a con man wins a bet by being honest, an old woman outwits Frank and Jesse James, a man fakes out a houseful of ghosts, and more.
Related Books:
Also by Patricia McKissack
The Dark-Thirty
Lu and the Swamp Ghost
More Tricksters
A Ring of Tricksters: Animal Tales from America, the West Indies, and Africa by Virginia Hamilton
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