Publishers Weekly
The Classics CornerCarl Sandburg's 1920 Rootabaga Stories and 1923 More Rootabaga Stories are back, in all their goofy read-aloud glory, in handsome cloth and paper reissues with interior illustrations by Maud and Miska Petersham. As the tales begin, Gimme the Ax's family sells everything they have pigs, pastures, pepper pickers, pitchforks and prepares to move as the neighbors speculate: They are going to Kansas, to Kokomo, to Canada, to Kankakee, to Kalamazoo, to Kamchatka, to the Chattahoochee. (Apr.) Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.
From the Publisher
"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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SEPTEMBER 2020 - AudioFile
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
