The Honest-to-Goodness Truth

by Patricia C. McKissack, Giselle Potter (Illustrator)

Overview

From Coretta Scott King Award–winning author Patricia C. McKissack comes a humorous and poignant picture book about the right time to tell the truth.

“Tell the truth and shame the devil,” Libby’s mama has told her. So whatever is Libby doing wrong?

Ever since she started telling only the truth, the whole world seems to be mad at her. First, it’s her best friend, Ruthie Mae, who gets upset when Libby tells all their friends that Ruthie Mae has a hole in her sock. Then Willie gives her an ugly look when she tells the teacher he hasn’t done his homework.

It seems that telling the truth isn’t always so simple. Can Libby figure out what it really means to be truthful and make amends?

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780689853951
Publisher:	Aladdin
Publication date:	01/01/2003
Series:	Avenues
Edition description:	Original
Pages:	40
Sales rank:	266,046
Product dimensions:	9.00(w) x 8.14(h) x 0.12(d)
Age Range:	4 - 8 Years

About the Author

Patricia C. McKissack is the author of many highly acclaimed books for children, including Goin' Someplace Special, a Coretta Scott King Award winner; The Honest-to-Goodness Truth; Let My People Go, written with her husband, Fredrick, and recipient of the NAACP Image Award; The Dark-Thirty, a Newbery Honor Book and Coretta Scott King Award winner; and Mirandy and Brother Wind, recipient of the Caldecott Medal and a Coretta Scott King Honor Book. She lives in St. Louis, Missouri.

Giselle Potter has illustrated many books, including Try It! by Mara Rockliff, All by Himself? by Elana K. Arnold, and Kate and the Beanstalk by Mary Pope Osborne, as well as her own Tell Me What to Dream About, This Is My Dollhouse, and The Year I Didn’t Go to School, about traveling through Italy with her parents’ puppet troupe when she was eight. She lives in Rosendale, New York, with her husband and two daughters. Visit her at GisellePotter.com.

Editorial Reviews

"Speak the truth and shame the devil," says Libby Louise Sullivan's mother after Libby Louise tells her a fib. Her own shame far outweighs the punishment dealt out by her mother, and Libby Louise vows, "From now on, only the truth." But the girl's strict enforcement of her own rule soon lands her in deep water. She alienates a host of people: her best friend by publicly pointing out a hole in her sock; a classmate by tattling on him; and a neighbor by critiquing her garden. McKissack (Let My People Go) thoroughly examines a common childhood problem--discerning when the truth helps and when it hurts--with homespun language and accessible situations. The intimate settings so integral to Potter's (Three Cheers for Catherine the Great!) folk-art style provide a fitting complement to the author's cozy community. Her depictions of an alternately astonished and contrite Libby Louise, who winds up feeling the sting of truth herself, will likely cause readers to recall their own chagrin in similar circumstances. Ages 4-8. (Jan.) Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

"McKissack thoroughly examines a common childhood problem-discerning when the truth helps and when it hurts-with homespun language and accessible situations," wrote PW. "The intimate settings so integral to Potter's folk-art style provide a fitting complement to the author's cozy community." Ages 4-8. (Jan.)

Publishers Weekly

K-Gr 3-When Libby Louise's Mama tells her to "Speak the truth and shame the devil," Libby takes the advice too literally, and tells truths wherever she goes. Starting with telling her friend-in public-that there's a hole in her sock, Libby pushes honesty to the hilt both in school and out, about missed homework, embarrassing mistakes and punishments, and messy yards. Her promise to "tell the truth no matter how much it hurt" leaves a trail of wounded feelings and offended people, but Libby doesn't understand the reactions she's getting until her beloved horse is called an "old flea-ridden swayback." The language of the text conveys the flavor of African-American Southern speech patterns, using some colorful similes ("That horse is older than black pepper") but avoiding the use of dialect. The illustrations, in a faux-na f style, are done in soft tones, with browns and greens predominating, evoking the warm feeling of a small country community in which blacks and whites live, go to school, and attend Sunday school together, and everyone knows everyone else. A welcome offering about honesty and consideration.-Marian Drabkin, Richmond Public Library, CA Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.

School Library Journal

This story will easily evoke much discussion about when and how to tell the truth. Use it to set the tone for character education at the beginning of the school year.
—Bookbag Magazine

Bonnie Fowler