A selection of Sandburg's fanciful, humorous short stories peopled with such characters as the Potato Face Blind Man, Susan Slackentwist, and Dippy the Wisp.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
In his foreword, George Hendrick explains that Sandburg, searching for bedtime stories for his three daughters, lamented the lack of fairy tales native to this country. So the Pulitzer Prize-winning poet and biographer of Abraham Lincoln wrote three volumes of his own, which he described as "tales with American fooling in them." There is indeed "fooling" and whimsy aplenty in the 10 previously unpublished tales collected in this cleverly designed, exquisitely illustrated book. In several (but disappointingly few) spots, the type is manipulated playfully around Zelinsky's wondrously inventive art, rendered colored pencil on plastivellum drafting film. Alliteration and clever--if decidedly unorthodox--word usage and sentence structure abound, as do such curious character names as Peter Potato Blossom Wishes, Dippy the Wisp and Sweeter Than the Bees Humming. This all makes for mellifluous, ear-pleasing passages when read aloud, though beginning readers may have trouble tackling some of the text-heavy pages, and may need help deciphering sentences such as "You give the horses many thoughtfuls, it seems to me." Few readers--or listeners--will easily forget Sandburg's unique characters--among them five whispering blue cats that seem to disappear when held up to the sky, a three-legged hat dancer and a green hat-eating horse. And visions of Zelinsky's magical renditions of each will linger equally long. All ages.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From School Library Journal
Grade 3-6-Sandburg's poetic talents invest these 10 stories with sounds and rhythms that will make readers' imaginations dance. Characters with names like "Ax Me No Questions," "Silver Pitchers," and "Hoboken Kitty-Kitty" will tickle children's funny bones. Words like "slimpsing," "huck bug," and "mooches," and phrases like "sleepy songs soft" and "you snoof of a snitch" will make them realize the potential of language to rise above the mundane. Zelinsky complements the stories with colored-pencil drawings that echo their emotional content while maintaining a more naturalistic array of images. The title page of each piece shows a rootabaga with some subtle but intriguing hints of what's to come. Other illustrations depict bits of action or portraits of characters, piquing interest and elicting sympathy. The designer has woven text and pictures into a seamless sequence of pages that allows Sandburg's witty wisdom and Zelinsky's artistic inspiration to sing in unison.
Kenneth Marantz, Art Education Department, Ohio State University, Columbus
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Kenneth Marantz, Art Education Department, Ohio State University, Columbus
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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5.0 out of 5 stars
More Rootabagas,
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This review is from: More Rootabagas (Hardcover)
ISBN 0679800700 - *Manufactured in the United States of America (yay for Alfred A Knopf Inc!)The jacketflap of this book says the stories here are "entirely new, never-before published". Written by the late great Carl Sandburg, the copyright is held by Carl Sandburg Family Trust. Stories included are: - A Girl Named Silver Pitchers Tells a Story About Egypt, Jesse James and Spanish Onions - The Story of Peter Potato Blossom Wishes and How She Went Down into Rootabaga Country and Came Back with Five Sky Blue Whispering Cats - How the Caterpillar Told Secrets to a Spink Bug and a Huck - How Susan Slackentwist Sang a Song to a Cornfield Scarecrow. - The Story of How Dippy the Wasp and Ax Me No Questions Learned About the Village of Pick Ups - The Story of Burnt Chestnuts, Fish Stars with Fire Tails and Two Prairie Girls, The Beans Are Burning and Sweeter Than The Bess Humming - How They Are Good to the Green Hat-Eating Horses - The Hat Dancers Who Came the Year Summer Never Came - The Palace of Pickles and the Mud Slingers with Buckets of Mud - How the Fairies Went Away... and Who Took Their Places. The stories are delightfully nonsensical and still somehow poetic, a feat I can neither explain nor replicate. Sandburg's a legend for a reason. Illustrator Paul O. Zelinsky's images are fun, sometimes incorporated into the text (scissors cut the end off several lines of text, leaving them "dangling", for example), and suit the text so perfectly that I can't imagine the book without them. - AnnaLovesBooks
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