Papa Alonzo Leatherby: A Collection of Tall Tales from the Best Storyteller in Carroll County

by Marguerite W. Davol

When Papa Alonzo Leatherby's tall tales about New England freeze solid one extra cold winter, they have to be thawed out and preserved in ingenious ways.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0689802781
• ISBN13: 9780689802782
• Release Date: October 1995
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing
• Length: 70 Pages
• Weight: 0.68 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 6.3" x 9.3"
• Age Range: 9 to 12 years
• Grade Range: Grades 4 to 7

Customer Reviews

Tall Tales inspired by the tradition of oral story telling

Anyone who has ever sat through a tall tale telling competition will understand the inspiration behind this modern Paul Bunyonesque book. Each chapter is devoted to one of Papa's children and is a self contained tall tale. All of the tales are connected both by the fact that they froze solid on the original telling (it was that cold), and have been thawed individually to be savored each in its own time, and by the desire of Papa Alonzo's daughter to learn from them in hopes of becoming as good a story teller as her father, a feat he claims she achieves at book's end. The stories are not quite the caliber of well honed traditional tall tales (What individually invented stories are?), but they are imaginative, funny and satisfying. The book is delightful. I will be giving copies of it as gifts for years to come.