How Animals Saved the People: Animal Tales From The South

Retold by: J.J Reneaux
Illustrated by: James Ransome
Folk Tale
~This book is a collection of Southern folk tales, which begins with a bio told by Reneaux about the South and where the stories in this book came from. The first tale is from the Appalachain Mountains and is called the Golly Whumper. It is clever and funny, filled with southern words and will definately get a kick out of the students. It is about old Aunt Molly who picked a gourd that was too green. The gourd chased her out of her house so she tries to run to her neighbors to take cover. On the way, all the nice critters try to stop that old golly whumping gourd from hitting Aunt Molly on the behind.The groundhog tries, the panther tries, but no one can stop the golly whumper. Untill Bear comes along and smashes it to pieces. Aunt Molly wants to repay her critter friends for their good deeds, so she takes them to her mean rich neighbor and lets them eat from his farm.
The next tale is called "How Miz Gator Lost her Pea-Green Suit." This is an african american tale about how the alligator got its lumpy brownish skin. Miz Gator had a beautiful silky smooth pea-green suit that she always doted on. One day Br'er Rabbit runs by Miz Gator but doesnt have time to talk becuase he says he just ran into trouble and needs to get back to his hole. Miz Gator has never met trouble before and asks Br'er Rabbit to introduce her. He says to meet him in the middle of the dry cornfields at high noon. Miz. Gator comes along with her babies and Br'er Rabbit says he will go fetch trouble. The mischevous Br'er Rabbit sets the corn stalks on fire and the Gators have to run through the fire and into the Mississippi. Now from the fire, they have lost their beautiful silky pea-green suits and are stuck with scorched, lumpy, greenish brown hide.
These two stories were two of my favorites and ones that I would share with my class. The book contains 6 other great stories that could be told as folktales to students as well.
~Since we live in the South, this is a great book of tales that came from where our students live. This can make students feel an automatic connection to the book. A good activity would be to use "How Miz Gator Lost her Pea-Green Suit" and have students make up their own folk tale about how an animal got a certain trait. Have students write the story, drawl a picture, and then share it with their classmates.