True Lies

June 1, 1997
Gr 2-4-These 18 stories tell "true lies" and encourage readers to seek the truth behind what seems to be fallacy. For example, in "The Donkey and the Carrots," a donkey tied to an eight-foot rope manages to devour carrots from a cart 30 feet away. How? Sources for the tales are cited and range from the folk literature of Nigeria, Finland, the Jews of Kurdistan, to the reigns of British kings. Youngsters will relish these challenges, and teachers will appreciate their value for developing critical skills. Those who like these selections will also enjoy Shannon's Still More Stories to Solve (Greenwillow, 1994) and its predecessors. Black-and-white cartoons add energy to the tellings, and each tale is interpreted by partial page or border art. For the most part, the art and text are well integrated, but in a few cases the intensity of the art is distracting. With True Lies, Shannon adds another thoughtfully selected and well-written folkloric-puzzle book to his body of work.-Carolyn Noah, Central Mass. Regional Library System, Worcester, MA

May 15, 1997
Gr. 4^-6. The author of the Stories to Solve series turns again to his extensive knowledge of folktales. Here, short, lively folk stories are used to challenge the reader to untangle the truth from situations in which characters make snap judgments or are cleverly misled. A flip of the page unmasks the trick or, as Shannon would call it, "the lie." Good source notes are provided, and John O'Brien's free-wheeling black-and-white sketches nicely catch the comedy inherent in the scenarios. Kids will certainly have fun using this on their own; teachers will like it, too, as a way to enliven a lesson, as a means of getting students to think about the meaning of "truth," or alerting kids to the power of words and the ease with which their meanings can be manipulated. ((Reviewed May 15, 1997))(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 1997, American Library Association.)