17. Paul Bunyan

# 17 Paul Bunyan

Author: Sandra Becker

Publisher: Weigl Publishers Inc, 2003

24 pages

Traditional Literature

Paul Bunyan was a story I had to reenact when I was in high school and we had to come up with a different ending to the story. I chose this book because it is a story that everyone is familiar with and has been told for ages. The story starts out with Paul who as a baby was put in a cradle and floated down the river. Paul was a huge man who could cut hundreds of trees at once. The story is about Paul and his life as a lumberjack.

The illustrations in this book are very realistic. The colors are soft greens, browns, and blues. The illustrations look as if they are hand drawn. The hair on Paul’s head is realistic looking as well as the details in the wood that makes up the forest.  The illustrations are full page with text boxes on the picture that tells the facts about Paul and his life as a lumberjack.

This book is appropriate for any grade level. The book could be used in a social studies lesson to introduce Paul as a folk tale hero. The book provides many facts about the legend and a time line of where the story originated.  The story of Paul Bunyan can introduce a language arts lesson to provide the students for the opportunity to change the story of Paul Bunyans life and where he came from. This book has no awards or honors, but is great to use as a resource in the classroom because of the facts, history, and details about Paul Bunyan it contains.