Rootabaga Stories

by Carl Sandburg, Maud Petersham (Illustrator), Miska Petersham (Illustrator)

Overview

Welcome to Rootabaga Country—where the railroad tracks go from straight to zigzag, where the pigs wear bibs, and where the Village of Cream Puffs floats in the wind. You'll meet baby balloon pickers, flummywisters, corn fairies, and blue foxes—and if you're not careful, you may never find your way back home!
These beautiful new editions retain the original illustrations by Maud and Miska Petersham, and feature gorgeous new jackets by acclaimed illustrator Kurt Cyrus. Carl Sandburg's irrepressible, zany, and completely original Rootabaga Stories and More Rootabaga Stories will stand alone on children's bookshelves—when they aren't in children's hands.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781781391396
Publisher:	Oxford City Press
Publication date:	04/21/2012
Pages:	144
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.50(d)
Age Range:	8 Years

About the Author

CARL SANDBURG (1878–1967) was twice awarded the Pulitzer Prize, first in 1940 for his biography of Abraham Lincoln and again in 1951 for Complete Poems. Before becoming known as a poet, he worked as a milkman, an ice harvester, a dishwasher, a salesman, a fireman, and a journalist. Among his classics are the Rootabaga Stories, which he wrote for his young daughters at the beginning of his long and distinguished literary career.

Table of Contents

1 Three Stories About the Finding of the Zigzag Railroad, the Pigs with Bibs On, the Circus Clown Ovens, the Village of Liver-and-Onions, the Village of Cream Puffs

How They Broke Away to Go to the Rootabaga Country 3

How They Bring Back the Village of Cream Puffs When the Wind Blows It Away 19

How the Five Rusty Rats Helped Find a New Village 29

2 Five Stories About the Potato Face Blind Man

The Potato Face Blind Man Who Lost the Diamond Rabbit on His Gold Accordion 41

How the Potato Face Blind Man Enjoyed Himself on a Fine Spring Morning 45

Poker Face the Baboon and Hot Dog the Tiger 53

The Toboggan-to-the-Moon Dream of the Potato Face Blood Man 59

How Gimme the Ax Found Out About the Zigzag Railroad and Who Made It Zigzag 65

3 Three Stories About the Gold Buckskin Whincher

The Story of Blixie Bimber and the Power of the Gold Buckskin Whincher 73

The Story of Jason Squiff and Why He Had a Popcorn Hat, Popcorn Mittens and Popcorn Shoes 79

The Story of Rags Habakuk, the Two Blue Rats, and the Circus Man Who Came With Spot Cash Money 89

4 Four Stories About the Deep Doom of Dark Doorways

The Wedding Procession of the Rag Doll and the Broom Handle and Who Was in It 99

How the Hat Ashes Shovel Helped Snoo Foo 105

Three Boys with Jugs of Molasses and Secret Ambitions 109

How Bimboo the Snip's Thumb Stuck to His Nose When the Wind Changed 123

5 Three Stories About Three Ways the Wind Went Winding

The Two Skyscrapers Who Decided to Have a Child 133

The Dollar Watch and the Five Jack Rabbits 141

The Wooden Indian and the Shaghorn Buffalo 151

6 Four Stories About Dear, Dear Eyes

The White Horse Girl and the Blue Wind Boy 159

What Six Girls with Balloons Told the Gray Man on Horseback 167

How Henry Hagglyhoagly Played the Guitar With His Mittens On 175

Never Kick a Slipper at the Moon 185

7 One story-"only the Fire-Born Understand Blue"

Sand Flat Shadows 191

8 Two Stories About Corn Fairies, Blue Foxes, Flongboos and Happenings That Happened in the United States and Canada

How to Tell Corn Fairies if You See 'Em 205

How the Animals Lost Their Tails and Got Them Back Traveling from Philadelphia to Medicine Hat 213

Editorial Reviews

"Takes the home-bred American fantasy of The Wizard of Oz even further."—School Library Journal

"Glorious for reading aloud."—The New York Times Book Review
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From the Publisher

Narrator Zura Johnson breathes new life into this vintage collection of interconnected whimsical short stories by famed poet Carl Sandburg. Rootabaga Country is home to denizens with names like Blixie Bimber and Jason Squiff. Residents “snizzle” and “sniffer” and find enchanted “whinchers.” Johnson blithely treats nonsense words in the same way she treats actual words, making stories like “How the Hat Ashes Shovel Helped Snoo Foo” seem equally plausible and ridiculous. She creates distinct character voices for the entire population—many of whom live in the Village of Liver-and-Onions. As you would expect from Sandburg, the prose is poetic, and Johnson maintains a fun, upbeat tempo while highlighting the many instances of repetition, alliteration, and rhyme. L.T. © AudioFile 2020, Portland, Maine

SEPTEMBER 2020 - AudioFile