Big Tall Books

Kadir Nelson's beautiful, realistic, vivid human illustrations capture the period, the setting, the wonder and the magic of Big Jabe. With his feats, Big Jabe also reminds one of Krishna as a boy. The powerful antislavery message could not have a better children's fiction spokesman than the giant-of-heart Big Jabe. Fiction, with its hyperboles and suspension of disbelief, often is truer than truth, and Big Jabe. rings with sincerity.

This story is a rather original tall tale that revolves around the lives of slaves who live on a plantation. You will never look at another pear tree the same way after your read this story! It will remind you, somewhat, of the tale of Paul Bunyan.

Big Jabe is the story of how a child found floating down the river becomes a hero and savior of his people during the time of slavery. Jabe is found by Addy as she is out fishing at the river for her master. When Addy shows kindness to him, he rewards her by giving her the biggest catch of fish she has ever had. Not only does Jabe help Addy, but within a season's time, the boy Jabe grows to be a full gtown man who can do the work of twenty. He assists all the slaves in doing their tasks and before long, the master's slaves suddenly begin to disappear. In this tall tale Nolen has weaved examples from Biblical stories and other legendary tall tales like Johnny Appleseed and John Henry. The bright watercolor paintings done by the illustrator enhance the story's beauty and brings all of the characters in Nolen's Big Jabe to life. Once again, Nolen has a winner on her hands!

When I saw the book The Short Book: Tall Stories, Freakish Facts, and the Long and Short of Being Small in a Great Big World by Zachary Kanin, I figured it was a must-read for me. Being a statuesque 5' 4", I would say I resemble this title. Short Book is a fun read that has plenty of laughs while also pointing out that being six feet tall is not a prerequisite for success in today's society.

Contents:
Forward; Shortspective; Smallotry; Profiles in Shortage; Suppshort; A Neat Little Package

This is one of those books that is a mix of off-beat humor, facts, and outright fiction that doesn't give any indicator of where the author might go next. For instance, the reason you're short is that your parents didn't love you and would do anything to make sure you weren't happy in life (fiction!). Job interviews are far different if you're short than if you're tall (humor). There are actual surgical procedures to make you taller (fact), but it doesn't sound like a whole lot of fun to have your legs broken and continually stretched as new bone forms. I'll take my current height, thank you very much... Profiles in Shortage is probably one of the more interesting chapters, where Kanin lists a number of people from various walks of life who are aren't known for their vertical superiority. All in all (which isn't much at our height), you'll find that "being short" is far more normal than the common view that the media leads you to believe.

Other than for the fun of reading the book, this might be a nice choice for someone who is overly fixated on their height. While it doesn't bother me now, I know it was difficult growing up as the shortest person at school. This book wouldn't have changed that, but it would have gone far to give me role models to look up to (or over at)... Then when you finally grow up (or just get old), you can choose to ignore all those giant freaks of nature. :)

I DUG this book! I myself am a gangly giantess, but I picked this up because I thought it would be a fun gift for my little nephew. It is! It's full of fun stories and neat facts, really a great present for our small but great loved ones. And it teaches us tallies a little humility!

This was a terrific book, both funny and heartfelt. I got it as a gift for my uncle who is a short man, and he says the book has meant a lot to him. My wife and I were able to enjoy it even though we are both of average height for our country (the United States). Beat the Christmas rush and buy this book in October!

This is a wonderful book of compassion and advice for children of all ages who feel "different" than everyone else. Which is every child, sometime in their life! The message is beautifully conveyed with original artwork, also by the author (though it doesn't say so anywhere in the book.) The message is important to every child, the creative and beautiful artwork is a feast for the eyes. Don't hesitate to purchase for any child in your life, they will love this book!

Stand Tall is a wonderful book to read for all ages of readers. It has been along time coming for a book of this caliber. I work with children who have Dyslexia and other learning disabilities at a private school. I see these children come to The Prentice beaten down from being teased because they simply process information differently. This book is exactly what we teach them...to "Stand Tall" and that it is ok to be different/an individual.
As an adult with learning disabilities I wish this book had been written so I could have been able to "Stand Tall" while growing up instead of feeling small most of my life. Thank you, Ms. Hansen, for creating such a wonderful message for all to read.
Sincerely,
Sandy Summers
Stand Tall: Growing The Courage To Be Uniquely You

Diane Hansen has created a beautiful book that speaks to experiences and feelings that we all share as humans in relationship to one another. It doesn't matter what race, creed, religion or nationality you may ascribe to, most everyone has felt at sometime or another that they just don't fit in, and Diane expresses beautifully and compassionately that "standing tall" in your own unique beauty is the answer.

This book is a must for teachers, parents, grandparents and basically anyone that spends time with children. Flowers represent the characters and so no one reading the book would feel excluded, which I thought was a brilliant way to express this message.

Adults will appreciate the message too! When I first received the book, I read it several times, enjoying the images of handmade paper flowers. I was actually inspired to create my own "flower self" as a creative expression of my own unique beauty. If you are someone that is creative, but might be feeling blocked or having a hard time moving past feelings of inadequacy, this is great little book to have on hand for inspiration. I have put it right up there with my Shel Silverstein books. Well done Diane Hansen!

After I heard about this book on NPR, I had to get it. It was just as good as promised. The story is heartwarming and humorous, taking the reader on a journey with two cowboys who lost their favorite cow. It is also wonderfully paced so that after a few readings, children can chime in to say the cowboys' favorite meal ("Guess what?" "Beans!"). There is just enough text on each page so that children with short attention spans don't lose interest, and for children with longer attention spans, the beautiful and kid-friendly illustrations contain many fun details to discuss as you are reading. It's also typeset in big block letters that are easier to recognize for kids who are still learning the alphabet.

I bought this for my favorite nephew, but before giving it to him I ended up reading it through many times just to enjoy the story and pictures. I only managed to read it to him once, but in the thank you letter my sister wrote, "No one here reads the story quite like you do," and that makes me think he might have asked to have it read to him again.

this story is wonderful and so are remy charlip's warm illustrations. it's nice to read a book about cowboys where the cowboys are really nice guys and good friends and cry when they lose their beloved cow, grace. so sweet, especially the very last page where charlip has re-worded the song amazing grace to sing about grace the cow.

This Author walked From Florida to Boston and was a guest on Regis and Kelly.
Once I started reading this book I could not put it down. Gary is an inspiration! This soft covered book has large print. Chapter after Chapter, I laughed and Cried. I felt like he was talking to me as I was reading this book. This book will help anyone trying to lose weight every step of the way. It is worth every penny and then some...A great book for anyone no matter what size you are Big or Small! This is how the "Million Calorie March" was Born.Fighting obesity in todays society.
The Reality, The humor and the Results all in one!
If I could give it 10 Stars I would.

Baxter Black is fantastic. He is so down to earth that it's easy to identify with his subjects. I plan to see him at a cowboy poetry reading.

My favorite by this author thus far! The title says it all, are our beliefs made up of just that?
This book follows the life on planet Earth of Jamison Dargod through sometimes humorous, but always thought provoking adventures. Just who he is and where he came from, you'll have to read the book to discover. The author's knowledge of history is clearly revealed in this story, as he keeps to a correct historical timeline while adding his own creative ideas and touches throughout. Quite an intriquing read!

Texas Kitsch, lowbrow, underwhelming, and a false document of ancestor encopresis.

Page is definitely of German dissent or has a cloaca or Sirenomelia.

But the Poncho Villia outhouse was pretty funny.

You don't have to be from Texas to connect with this book.
There is history, humor, lots of BS and some real belly laughs.

A few titles in the Table of Contents include:

Ode to the Sears Catalog
The "Cheap Bastard"
The Outhouse Hole-Size Ordinance of Bowie, Texas and many more.

"Big Don" has that gritty, wild west kind of humor that we Texans love.

Looking forward to your next book.

This book was sooo funny-- I laughed til i cried! Everyone who needs a good laugh should buy this book! thanks Don page! Write another book - i shall be 1st in-line to order it ! Virginia Davis

What makes this book so great is its true! I wasn't born in Texas but got a copy of this terrific book and leave it in the "bath" for times when I need to study for a while. My wife asked what the heck I was doing, laughing so hard, with the door to the bathroom closed. She probably thinks I'm a little strange, but whats wrong with a little humor!

We are planning to buy a dozen for Christmas. This is sure to become a best seller. It was worth the $15 just to spend a good hour laughing out loud. What a blast! Plus, you don't get that many books in full color for $15 these days.

Hope you enjoy it as much as we have.

This wonderful story of "Mrs. Flower" is beautifully written. It is a tall tale on the lines of Paul Bunyan, as far as a folk hero is concerned. Dona Flor is wise, and eager to befriend everyone in her little pueblo. This story is about compassion, friendship, and bravery. The illustrations by Raul Colon are exceptional! This is a wonderful read aloud tale.

Good reading skills or parental assistance will lend a wider age range to the lovely tale Dona Flor: A Tall Tale About A Giant Women With A Great Big Heart by Pat Mora. Raul Colon's gorgeous drawings lend to the captivating tale of a giant lady who lives in a tiny village in the American Southwest. A friend of kids, she plays and reads with them and even protects her beloved neighbors when a terrifying animal threatens the village. Spanish words and phrases pepper the story.

Who doesn't like a good gigantic woman tall tale? From to Anne Isaacs', "Swamp Angel" to Lynne Bertrand's, "Granite Baby", I would dare say that there isn't a single poorly written picture book out there featuring a huge female. "Dona Flor" is no exception to that rule. Illustrated by the truly original Raul Colon and written by the prolific Pat Mora the story is not a wholly original one, but it's just well-written enough to deserve the praise it's received. A winner of the 2006 Pura Belpre Medal for Illustration and the Pura Belpre Honor for Narration, the story is a lovely series of small adventures by a larger than life gal.

If a person grows large plants by singing to them, then shouldn't the same logic apply to babies? Sure enough, when Dona Flor's mother sang to her little girl, that same babe grew and grew and grew. Our first image is of Flor washing her face with the snow of a nearby mountain. Able to speak to animals of every kind, she may have been considered different from the other kids but when it came to getting to school on time there was no one better to catch a ride on. When she was grown up she allowed everyone in her home, whether animal or person. One day the villagers are scared out of their wits by the deafening roar of a mountain lion. When the wind starts making a fuss as well Flor gets him under control with a big old hug. Finally, Flor finds the source of the giant cat's cries. Seems a puma has set up a somewhat clever hollow log device that blasts its voice over the countryside. Flor befriends the little kitty (little to her) then she and all her animal friends settle in for the night on some comfy fluffy clouds.

It takes one or two reads of the book to really get a feel for Mora's style of writing. At a first glance I found the wording to be a little herky jerky. Then, as I eased into it, I found that Mora was just following the standard tall tale format already so familiar with other folk heroes. There's also no denying that it is singularly satisfying to see a hero who is a beautiful, strong, woman of Hispanic heritage. Flor's both lovely and ultimately capable. In this way, Raul Colon has undoubtedly created his nicest book yet. It's obvious that nobody draws like Raul Colon. His style of watercolor washes, etching, and colored and litho pencils offers us images with an amazing amount of depth and texture. You wouldn't think texture would be all that important in a picture book done with colored pencils, but when Colon combines all his different techniques the result is simultaneously dreamlike and yet somehow realistic too. His Dona Flor, for her part, is truly lovely. I can only imagine the delight Pat Mora must have felt when she saw Colon's illustrations for the first time. She's a lucky woman indeed.

There are some fun parallels that you can draw between this book to other tall tales. For example, there's a moment when Dona Flor is making tortillas. The tortillas are so large that the children are able to punt them down the pond for fun. If you wanted to do a storytime with stories of the same ilk, consider grabbing Steven Kellogg's, "Paul Bunyan" which (if I'm not too much mistaken) includes a similar instance with pancakes. Flor's handling of the wind (as featured on the book's cover) would also pair beautifully with "Mirandy and Brother Wind" by Patricia McKissack. It occurs to me that Pat Mora does tireless work for librarians in her spare time. Logically then, "Dona Flor" is her gift to those librarians constantly searching for new storytime material that deals with tall tales. Definitely add it to your own personal collection and seriously consider pairing it with the aforementioned tall tales I've already brought up. A pleasure to the eye and ear.

This is a very colorful book (see for yourself in the "search inside this book" feature) for the pre-school and under set. It begins with a drawing of a child watching a caterpillar in the tall grass. Then there are more caterpillars crunching and munching, hummingbirds darting and dipping, bees humming, a bird with wings flapping, ants lugging, snakes gliding, moles scratching and digging, beetles hurrying, frogs snapping, bunnies hopping, fireflies glowing, and bats swooping. The last lines are:

Stars bright,
moonlight...
good night,
tall, tall grass.

These last lines make it appropriate for a good-night book, but the language in general is good for children as it has a nice cadence, rhyme and rhythm.

Strum, drum,
bees hum
crack, snap
wings flap...

Four Stars. [B-]. Bright color from edge to edge. Okay read-aloud that uses more interesting, but simple, words for small fry. Suitable for a good night book.

The Good
Big pictures, splashy colors. The best part is the microscopic perspective. You feel like you are right with the boy in the tall, tall grass zoomed in on each creature that crawls or skitters by.

The Bad
The rhyming is sometimes awkward and there isn't much of a storyline.

This is my son's favorite book. The age range for this book says 4 & up, but my 2 year old just loves it. The illustrations are magnificent. My son & his day care class love to get involved and make the sounds that are in the tall, tall grass. Highly recommend!

Bright, attractive illustrations complement simple rhymes in large print as readers examine, from a caterpillar's point of view, the creatures that live and act in the tall, tall grass -- hummingbirds, bees, birds, ants, snakes, moles, beetles, frogs, bunnies, fireflies and bats -- as the book takes us through day and into the night.

Simple, effective and appealing to children.

To me, what makes this book so appealing is the variety of familiar and more unexpected creatures that are to be found "in the tall, tall grass," and what makes it remarkable is the perspective from daylight to dark. The text bites and Eric Carle style illustrations do not seem particularly original or unique to me beyond that (though others might disagree: its was an American Library Association Notable Book and a Boston Globe Horn Book Honor Book in 1992), but it its still an enjoyable, good quality read for budding naturalists and youngsters who are curious about the world around them.