Porch Lies

Starred review from July 10, 2006
As McKissack (The Dark-Thirty
) opens this treasure chest of tales, she recalls spending summer evenings on her grandparents' front porch in Nashville, where her grandfather and visitors would share spellbinding "porch lies," comically exaggerated stories that often centered on rogues and rascals. The author then presents her own variations on such yarns, "expand the myths, legends, and historical figures who often appear in the African American oral tradition" to create a sparkling array of porch lies, brimming with beguiling tricksters. McKissack sets the domestic scene for each by describing the porch visitor who first related the tale. A standout features wise, sassy Aunt Gran, who outsmarts Frank and Jesse James, manipulating the bandits into running out of town the racist villain who salted her well in hopes of procuring her property. Other memorable characters include the conniving used-car salesman who is brought to judgment quite humorously on the eve of his wedding; the truth-twisting fellow who wins the liars' contest at the state fair with the line, "I aine never told a lie before"; and a famous blues harmonica player, who wreaks such havoc in the holding station en route to heaven—or the alternative—that he's sent back to earth. Aunt Gran, slyly telling the James brothers a tale that will convince them to help her, notes, "Some folk believe the story; some don't. You decide for yourself." Readers of these spry tall tales will have a grand time doing just that. Ages 8-12.

September 1, 2006
Gr 5 Up -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"

Copyright 2006 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from May 15, 2006
Gr. 3-5. Like McKissack's award-winning " The Dark Thirty " (1992), the nine original tales in this uproarious collection draw on African American oral tradition and blend history and legend with sly humor, creepy horror, villainous characters, and wild farce. McKissack based the stories on those she heard as a child while sitting on her grandparents' porch; now she is passing them on to her grandchildren. 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. (Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2006, American Library Association.)

January 1, 2007
In ten original trickster stories, the child narrator either believes in the trickster when no one else does, or alone sees through him. "A Grave Situation" is a cliffhanger; "The Best Lie Ever Told" scores on its crafty staging; and the two-part story about rascally Cake Norris is a humdinger. Grandly melodramatic black-and-white illustrations capture the stories' mood.

(Copyright 2007 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)