tall tales

The Legend of Auntie Po by Shing Yin Khor

| Tasha
Cover image for The Legend of Auntie Po.

The Legend of Auntie Po by Shing Yin Khor (9780525554882)

The Paul Bunyan myth gets transformed by a young Chinese-American girl growing up in the logging camps in this graphic novel. Mei shares her stories about Auntie Po just as freely as she shares her stellar pies. She is the daughter of the camp cook and helps out her father in the kitchen. The manager of the camp loves her pies and is friends with her father, but that only goes so far. The Chinese men logging are fed separately. When her father is fired, Mei is left behind at the camp with her best friend. Mei uses her stories of Po Pan Yin, Auntie Po, to give all of the children in the camp a heroine they can believe in. Mei must find a way through the politics of race and privilege to find a future for herself and her father in America.

Khor offers a mix of tall tale and riveting real life in this graphic novel. She weaves in LGBT elements as Mei has feelings for Bee, her best friend. The use of sharing tales to provide comfort combines seamlessly with also offering food. Mei is a girl with a future that seems out of reach much of the time, but comes into focus by the end of the book. The book looks directly at racism in the years after the Chinese Exclusion Act and offers a mixture of characters that are racist and allies for Mei to encounter and deal with.

The art focuses on the characters themselves, sometimes offering glimpses of the Sierra Nevada scenery too. Chapters begin with different logging tools being featured and described. The art is full of bold colors, the huge Auntie Po, and the busyness of a logging camp and its kitchen.

A fascinating look at logging from a Chinese-American point of view combined with some really tall tales. Appropriate for ages 9-12.

Reviewed from library copy.

Review: Miss Sally Ann and the Panther by Bobbi Miller

| Tasha

miss sally ann

Miss Sally Ann and the Panther retold by Bobbi Miller, illustrated by Megan Lloyd

Miss Sally Ann has had many great adventures, but one of the tallest tales about her is the story of when she met Fireeyes.  Fireeyes was a panther, huge and black.  When the two of them saw each other in the deep forest, they both wanted each other’s fur.  Miss Sally Ann thought that Fireeyes’ hide would keep her toes nice and warm.  Fireeyes wanted the bear-fur coat that she was wearing to keep his shoulders warm.  After gazing eye-to-eye, the two of them began to fight.  It was an epic battle, and I won’t spoil the ending or the middle of the book for you.  Just know that this is one wild tale about a tremendous woman and a blazing panther.

Miller’s writing here is, as she would put it, “ripsnorting fine.”  She peppers and spices her prose with words that can only be read with a twang and a great deal of swagger.  Just try saying “thunderferous” or “terrifiacious” without a big grin leaping to the your lips.  It all makes this book not only a great tall tale about an amazing woman, but also a “thunderific” book to share aloud.  The pacing is wild and wonderful, the battle is beyond epic, and the result is pure comfort too.

Lloyd’s illustrations really bring the larger-than-life characters full to realization.  From the huge size of Fireeyes to the great joy and fun that Miss Sally Ann has about life, the two of them shine on these pages.  Their battle is captured, full of motion and stunning action.

This is one great read to share with children learning about tall tales.  Not only does it feature a woman, but it’s also a treat to read aloud.  I’d also sneak it into any story time about cats just to get some big energy in there.  Appropriate for ages 4-6.

Reviewed from copy received from Holiday House.