Porch Lies: Tales of Slicksters, Tricksters, and Other Wily Characters

BIBLIOGRAPHY
McKissack, Patricia. 2006. PORCH LIES: TALES OF SLICKSTERS, TRICKSTERS, AND OTHER WILY CHARACTERS. Ill. By André Carrilho. New York: Schwartz & Wade Books. ISBN 0375836195

PLOT SUMMARY
In this story collection, Patricia McKissack shares ten fictitious tales. Some are modeled after stories she heard as a child, and some are her own originals. They are all written based on the African American oral storytelling tradition. Through these stories, you will meet sly characters that outsmart and trick other people, and get by just on their wits.

Readers will learn how Pete Bruce got a free pie, but eventually became Mis Martha June’s best customer. They will see why freeloading Mingo Cass always carried a one hundred dollar bill in his wallet and how he used it to get free haircuts for a year. Next, readers will travel on the road with bluesman, Mr. James “Bukka” Black and watch as he denies the Devil’s guitar to save his soul. The lies continue with Aunt Gran and her plot to get the famous outlaws Frank and Jesse James to save her farm from Farley and the Knights, while forming a life-long friendship with the dangerous criminals.

Readers will experience the dream that saved Clovis Reed “by the weight of a feather” and made him go through with his wedding. Then, Mis Crickett is almost buried alive by her crooked lawyer, but saved by her twisted, jewel thieving, jitney service partner. Readers will hear “the best lie ever told” and many others in an all-county liar’s contest. They will learn how Montgomery Red used an ordinary rock to tame the King of the Ghosts and ended up with a house full of cats. This collection wraps up explaining the possible immortality of Cake Norris and his trip within the holding station of the afterlife.

CRITICAL ANALYSIS
McKissack brings out the richness of the African American culture in this entertaining collection of folk tales. The author’s note at the beginning fully explains the tradition of storytelling within this culture and how her short stories originated, leaving readers excited to hear about the crazy characters. With hints of a southern dialect throughout the collection, and an explanation to the origin of each story, it is easy to feel like a part of the group listening on the porch swing.

Carrilho’s illustrations are few, but add a bit of visualization to each story. The details are lacking, however the expression of each character in the artwork is clear. These grayscale, charicature-like illustrations do not aid in storytelling, but rather bring out the personalities of McKissack’s wily, yet charming characters.

This book gives readers a glimpse of what it was like to live during The Great Depression, lets some see the perspective of a different culture, and allows them to learn to appreciate a good lie – or story. True porch lies were meant “to teach a value, to encourage us to think critically, or just to entertain,” and McKissack does a good job in achieving this purpose. Readers are provided with fun stories, some with a good lesson, that also allow them to experience the grand tradition of storytelling.

REVIEW EXCERPT(S)
SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL: “great leisure listening and knowing chuckles”
Starred review in BOOK LIST: “surprising twists and turns that are true to trickster tradition”
ALA Notable Children’s Book, 2007

CONNECTIONS
*Use PORCH LIES along with other story collections to recreate the oral storytelling ritual with students. Each student can read a short story to the group.
*After reading PORCH LIES and other story collections, discuss the African American storytelling tradition, then have the students create their own stories to pass along to their friends and families.
*Use PORCH LIES to teach the difference between fantasy and realism.


*Other multicultural story collections

Ada, Alma Flor & F. Isabel Campoy. Ill by Felipe Davalos, Susan Guevara, and Leyla Torres. 2006. TALES OUR ABUELITAS TOLD: A HISPANIC FOLKTALE COLLECTION. New York: Atheneum. ISBN 0689825838

Jungman, Ann. 2008. THE PRINCE WHO THOUGHT HE WAS A ROOSTER AND OTHER JEWISH STORIES. London: Frances Lincoln. ISBN 1845077938
**not yet published – released on February 28, 2008

McKissack, Patricia. 1992. THE DARK-THIRTY: SOUTHERN TALES OF THE SUPERNATURAL. Ill. by Brian Pinkney. New York: Knopf Books for Young Readers. ISBN 0679918639
**Newberry Honor Book, 1993
**Coretta Scott King Author Award, 1993