Mrs. Martin is presenting a unit on Davy Crockett, Johnny Appleseed and Daniel Boone, using puppets, activities and films that will appeal to her first grade class. Her class will be learning about legendary folk heroes, men who really lived but about whom many fictional tales were told.
I will show the Disney film Tall Tale: an unbelievable adventure to her class. In this live-action film, featuring Patrick Swayze, a young boy fights with his family against a land-grabbing villain in the Old West. In the boy’s quest for justice, he runs into some larger-than-life heroes including Paul Bunyan, John Henry and Pecos Bill. There’s a skillful blend of reality with fantasy as the make -believe characters help the boy save the family farm.
Although the film deals with male heroes, we will use it to lead into an introduction to female folk heroines. The class will be introduced to such books as Sally Ann Thunder Ann Whirlwind Crockett , the tall tale version about Davy’s wife and Swamp Angel, a tall tale about the woman who created the Smoky Mountains.
Students enjoy tall tales and they are an important part of our literary heritage. Many of them sprung from the oral tradition and grew more fantastic with each telling.
Sally Ann Thunder Ann Whirlwind Crockett is a mouthful of a title. It is a tall tale about the wife of Davy Crockett, real life hero of the Alamo, among other things. Retold by Steven Kellogg, it was adapted from the Davy Crockett Almanacs, which were published from 1834-1856, as dime-store novels. According to Kellogg, Mrs. Crockett has a prominent role in 8 of the tales and she is first identified as Sally Ann Thunder Ann Whirlwind Crockett in the 1854 almanac adventure entitled “A perilous situation of Mrs. Crockett.”
Kellogg’s picture book version is enticing with larger than life illustrations and draws from a number of the almanac tales. The story starts with a baby who brags about how she can out run any baby in Kentucky. Her nine brothers fail to beat her in any competition, although there are many efforts to do so. At the age of 8, Sally Ann runs off to the frontier to live with the animals. Several years later, she saves Davy Crockett from two eagles who are yanking his hair out for their nest. Of course, Davy falls madly in love with her and they are married. Sally ambitiously plans on having 31children! While Davy is off in Washington fulfilling his congressional duties , their house is attacked by alligators who crawl all over the outside . Sally fights the alligators and tosses them around so much that she creates a tornado and it rains alligators from Mississippi to New Orleans. Davy Crockett brags to Mike Fink, renowned alligator wrestler, about his wife’s physical prowess and soon Sally and Mike are engaged in a heated competition that results in Sally tossing Mike 5 miles upriver.
Yet another tall tale about the frontier with a woman protagonist is Swamp Angel, by Anne Isaacs. This is the story of Angelica Longrider who was a VERY big baby. At age two, she built her first log cabin. Soon she was using her great size to stop floods and put out forest fires. She earned the nickname “Swamp Angel” when she rescued a wagon train stuck in the mud in Dejection Swamp. The pioneers called her an angel.
A week long fight with a bear named Thundering Tarnation supposedly stirred up so much dust that when it settled it became the Great Smoky Mountains, During the week, she would do fantastic things like drink a lake for refreshment. The fight finally ended when she threw the bear into the sky. When he crashed against the stars, his impression left the constellation Orion behind.
These are appealing tall tales They are valuable because they feature fearless women and our literature is filled with tall tales about men. We will discuss tall tales, what they are, and how they differ from reality. We will try to create tall tales of our own.
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