True Lies

by George Shannon, John O'Brien (Illustrator)

Overview

In this collection of "lies" from many nations, the challenge is to find the slippery truth. By reading with care and not jumping to conclusions, readers will delight in discovering how these characters lie while at the same time they tell the truth.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780688163716
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	08/27/1998
Series:	True Lies , #1
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	64
Sales rank:	541,594
Product dimensions:	5.25(w) x 7.62(h) x 0.13(d)
Lexile:	660L (what's this?)
Age Range:	6 - 10 Years

About the Author

George Shannon is a popular storyteller and former children's librarian whose many notable picture books include Tomorrow's Alphabet, Lizard's Guest, and White Is for Blueberry. Tippy-Toe Chick, Go!, illustrated by Laura Dronzek, was named a Charlotte Zolotow Award Honor Book. George Shannon lives on Bainbridge Island, Washington.

John O'Brien has illustrated over 60 books for children, most recently I Know a Shy Fellow Who Swallowed a Cello by Barbara S. Garriel and The Beach Patrol, which he wrote with Max Bilkins. He lives in Delron, New Jersey, and Miami, Florida.

Table of Contents

	Introduction	7
1.	One Cookie	8
2.	The Donkey and the Carrots	11
3.	Ropedancing	13
4.	Half the Cherries	17
5.	A Little Land	21
6.	A Poor Scholar	25
7.	No Time to Lie	27
8.	Lost Money	29
9.	All Mine	33
10.	Matti and Peikko	35
11.	A Tall Hog	39
12.	Love and Pumpkins	41
13.	Shoes and Peas	43
14.	A Born Leader	47
15.	Pleased to See	49
16.	Pockets	53
17.	Stolen Yams	55
18.	Inheritance	59
	Notes	63

Editorial Reviews

Gr 2-4These 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

School Library Journal

Recognizing a half-truth is one of life's harder lessons, but Shannon (Still More Stories to Solve, 1994, etc.) makes a sport of it in this collection of 18 stories that challenge readers to discover what is true and what is fabricated. Whether it's the story of the brothers digging for treasure in the vineyard their late father bequeathed them (when the treasure is the vineyard itself), or the tale of the brother and sister who promised their mother they'd each eat only one of the cookies they were baking, but were still too full to eat dinner (because the cookies they'd devoured were as big as a cake), there is a host of amusing and tricky folktales, biblical stories, and fables to test anyone's truth-telling skills. The procession of black-and-white drawings maintains a justifiably high-spirited pace, and although the tales offer a varying degree of complexity, every one ends with "The Whole Truth," a section that reveals any deceptions or slippery omissions. A collection that confirms for children what they may have guessed already about life's many shades of gray.

Kirkus Reviews