Porch Lies: Tales of Slicksters, Tricksters, and Other Wily Characters

Bibliography:
McKissack, Patricia C. and André Carrilho, ill. Porch Lies: Tales of Slicksters, Tricksters, and Other Wily Characters. New York: Schwartz & Wade Books. 2006. ISBN-10 0375836195 ISBN-13 9780375836190

Plot Summary:
Porch Lies is a compilation of fictional tales told in a manner befitting a front porch. Each story is told from a different narrator, but the author pulls them all together as visitors to her grandparent’s porch. The stories are all told from an African American viewpoint and deal with issues in African American history such as slavery, segregation and KKK-ish actions. Through each story is a character who is able to swindle and talk their way into and out of just about any imaginable situation from getting free pie to outsmarting the King of the Ghosts. Each story leaves the reader impressed by the trickster and wanting to hear more.

Critical Analysis:
The way in which the stories are told, a relating of stories told to the author, helps to immediately grab the reader/listener’s attention since if the story is worth repeating, it must be good. Trickster stories are also easily appealing to an audience since the audience wants to figure out how the tricksters will end up convincing those around them that they are right and have done nothing wrong. The various elements of the supernatural found in some of the stories help to keep the stories as just that, stories, but they also have such an ease about them that the reader starts to wonder if there is some truth to them. The illustrations all have this supernatural feeling to them as well which makes the characters seem more fictitious but at the same time more real because the reader is able to put their own imaginative face on the characters and make them more personal. Overall, the only thing this book is missing is a little historical reference and of course, more stories.

Review Excerpts:
School Library Journal: “Carrilhos eerie black-and-white illustrations, dramatically off-balance, lit by moonlight, and elongated like nightmares, are well-matched with the stories. The tales are variously narrated by boys and girls, even though the authors preface seems to set readers up for a single, female narrator in the persona of McKissack herself. They contain the essence of truth but are fiction from beginning to end, an amalgam of old stories, characters, jokes, setups, and motifs. As such, they have no provenance. Still, it would have helped readers unfamiliar with African-American history to have an authors note helping separate the truth of these lies that allude to Depression-era African-American and Southern traditions. That aside, theyre great fun to read aloud and the tricksters, sharpies, slicksters, and outlaws wink knowingly at the child narrators, and at us foolish humans.”
Booklist: “Like McKissack's award-winning The Dark Thirty (1992), the nine original tales in this uproarious collection draw on African American oral tradition and blend history and legend with sly humor, creepy horror, villainous characters, and wild farce. McKissack based the stories on those she heard as a child while sitting on her grandparents' porch; now she is passing them on to her grandchildren. Without using dialect, her intimate folk idiom celebrates the storytelling among friends, neighbors, and family as much as the stories themselves. ‘Some folk believe the story; some don't. You decide for yourself.’… In black and white, Carrilho's full-page illustrations--part cartoon, part portrait in silhouette--combine realistic characters with scary monsters. History is always in the background (runaway slaves, segregation cruelty, white-robed Klansmen), and in surprising twists and turns that are true to trickster tradition, the weak and exploited beat powerful oppressors with the best lies ever told. Great for sharing, on the porch and in the classroom.”

Connections:
Here are some other books with stories that should be shared, many of which are about “slicksters” or “tricksters”:
Avi. ed. and Chris Raschka, ill. Best Shorts: Favorite Stories for Sharing. ISBN 9780618476039
Souci, Robert San. Sister Tricksters: Rollicking Tales of Clever Females. ISBN 9780874837919
Sherman, Josepha. Trickster Tales: Forty Folk Stories from Around the World. ISBN 9780874834505