Concentrating on lore gathered since World War II, Bronner has assembled an anthology of what children really say, not what adults wish they would say. It is through such shared lore-songs, expressions, games and beliefs-that children adapt to new situations. Bronner includes secret languages, jumprope rhymes, song parodies, games, taunts, tongue twisters, jokes, and more. These treasures make for nostalgic reading for adults who want to relive their own childhoods ... or gain a window to their own children's world.

American Children's Folklore (American Folklore Series)

Children's Books

Bronner, Simon J. J.

Literature & Fiction

August House Kids

Modern-day counterparts of the Spanish conquistadors and the early nineteenth-century settlers still cling to the image of El Dorado. The folklore of the land still exerts its magical pull. The pickup truck has replaced the horse and mule, but treasure seekers still travel with little more than their dreams and hopes. They can be found even now in the mountains and the valleys of the American Southwest, still searching for the elusive riches they believe await them. 
W.C. Jameson gathers his material from his own extensive on-site search in Arizona, Arkansas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas, and from interviews with people whose lives have been entwined with the search for particular treasures. His book contains 36 stories: accounts of gold mines where the nuggets can be collected with a rake; of hidden caverns where bars of silver are stacked like firewood; of caches of treasure guarded only by skeletons. 
Location maps point modern-day treasure hunters to the sites discussed in the legends.

Buried Treasures of the American Southwest

Jameson, W.C. C.

History

Anyone with an interest in the history and lore surrounding treasure will want to read these books. -KLIATT Review
By putting many miles on his pickup truck, scouring many old books, journals, and maps, and interviewing countless Ozark natives, W.C. Jameson compiled Buried Treasures of the Ozarks, a collection of 43 legends from Arkansas, Missouri, and Oklahoma. As they are handed down and passed around, these tales share certain elements--mysterious strangers bearing maps, social eccentrics who die rich but spurned, good folk who squander their lives on the search for treasure. 
Again and again, an untimely death (from pneumonia!) or cave-in, a sudden flagging of hope or interest calls searchers away just when they're on the verge of discovering untold riches. But despite their common themes, the stories are always rooted in local detail and at least partly verifiable fact. And again and again a reader is left with the haunting image of gold or silver deep in some Ozark cave, waiting to be exposed once more to the light of day. These American stories of outlaws and treasure teach readers the importance of resourcefulness, courage and responsibility.

Buried Treasures of the Ozarks

JAMESON, W.C.

Readers learn that indeed some of the gold has been found, and this should motivate them to get lucky and search on their own. -School Library Journal 
A cedar chest that had been packed with gold coins robbed from a bank just south of Lexington, Kentucky in 1860 was recovered 50 years later by a fishing guide at King's Mill Pond. Only a handful of coins were left in the chest, which had mostly rotted away. Is the rest settled beneath the silt of the pond today?
 The Appalachian Mountains have witnessed untold fortunes gained and lost. The confluence and clashes of a number of cultures – Native American Indian, French, Spanish, pioneer, and Union and Confederate forces - often resulted in struggles over mineral resources or fights about stashes of gold and silver that were hidden for later retrieval. W.C. Jameson gathered his material from journals, maps, on-site research in the Southern Appalachian Mountains and from interviews with people whose lives have been entwined with the search for long lost treasures. 
This book contains 40 legends with accounts of caves stacked from floor to ceiling with gold ingots; of caches guarded by skeletons and curses; and of Union payrolls scattered to the four winds. These Civil War era stories tell of courage, responsibility and resourcefulness that will teach readers as well as entertain.

Buried Treasures of the Appalachians

Barking at a Fox-Fur Coat

Winner of YALSA Popular Paperbacks for Young Adults
Highly acclaimed, award winning author Donald Davis wants us all to remember and share our family stories. Among other tall tales, he writes about how his uncle hung onto the multitudinous Democratic votes of the Ratherton clan while at the very same time keeping them from shooting Davis' squirrels in a lean year; how he got Phyleete, wife Jolly, their eleven sub-natural sons and one forgettably natural daughter to move their log house from the unlikely place they'd built it; and how he tried to solve the problem of the chatty Misses Lena and Lucy Leatherwood, who clogged up the eight-party telephone line so badly that Uncle Frank paid for his new phone four months before he ever got the chance to talk on it. 
Davis offers seventeen vintage family stories, including “Rainy Weather,” “The Southern Bells,” and “Old Man Hawkins' Lucky Day.” These stories from North Carolina make use of historical context with references to sharecropping and emancipation. The adventurous tricksters in these stories emphasize the importance of kindness, fairness and respect.

Barking At a Fox-fur Coat: Family Stories and Tall Tales

Davis, Donald

This collection of fictional sightings creates the potential for a few nightmares a la Stephen King. -School Library Journal
A Union Lieutenant keeps his promise to return to his sweetheart in Brooklyn and waltz to "The Blue Danube," even in death. In rural Virginia, a group of privileged pranksters suffer for dismissing the legend of the ghost who guards a Confederate shot tower. In a small town in South Carolina, a washer woman goes mad when she hears an army of the dead march through the streets night after night, at the stroke of midnight. 
After a war where passions were so intense, where so many died before they could finish the business of living, is it any wonder that stories of ghosts persist 130 years later? Some of these stories were written at the time of the Civil War, and some decades later. They vary from the interior horror of Ambrose Bierce's “Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” to the deceptively nostalgic tone of Mary Elizabeth Councilman's “Shot-Tower Ghost.” Some center on Union soldiers, others on Confederates.
 But what unifies these stories is the horror of the losses we sustained, a horror that cannot be measured in numbers or dollars but can only be conveyed in the language of our nation's imagination. These eerie stories teach readers about resourcefulness, courage and responsibility.

Civil War Ghosts (Civil War Series)

Greenberg, Martin

These treasure stories encourage dreams of riches and high adventure. -Review of Texas Books
Part of the colorful history of Texas includes legends of outlaw loot, pirate hoards, buried mines, and Santa Anna's lost pack-train carrying gold. This book contains 31 legends ranging from lost fortunes of Native Americans, French pirates, Spanish explorers, and Mexican soldiers to the early exploits of German and Scotch-Irish settlers. 
These unique tales from the people of the Lone Star State highlight their adventures and struggles in search of lost mines and forgotten treasures. Cowboys, outlaws, and stage coach robbers run fill the pages of this collection of Texas stories from real-life treasure hunter, W.C. Jameson. Readers will learn about the importance of courage, resourcefulness and responsibility in this enthralling adventure collection.

Buried Treasures of Texas

With the aid of more than 40 myths from the oral traditions of 30 Native American tribes, ranging from the Eskimos to the Indians of Guiana, Pijoan invites readers to take a close look at the common spirit that binds together all forms of life. The native American heroes and heroines in these myths, imbued with the strength of this common spirit, possess the power to transform themselves into snakes, birds, bears, wolves, and occasionally, as in the Sikyatki tale "Water Jar Boy," into everyday objects. This Native American folktale will teach readers the importance of courage and resourcefulness.

White Wolf Woman and Other Native American Transformation Myths (American Storytelling)

Teresa Pijoan

Fairy Tales, Folk Tales & Myths

Winner of Anne Izard Storytellers' Choice Award &amp; Selected as Outstanding by the Parent Council 
Nationally acclaimed storyteller J.J. Reneaux grew up Cajun for true, surrounded by the stories, music, food, and culture of rural communities in southeastern Texas and southern Louisiana. Cajun Folktales serves up a spicy gumbo of more than twenty traditional Cajun animal stories, fairy tales, ghost stories, and humorous tales.
 A traditional storyteller who collects by word-of-mouth, Reneaux has developed her repertoire over years of collecting―on front porches, school playgrounds, and her beloved fishing trips. She has refined her work in performances nationwide, including the National Storytelling Festival, where she has appeared numerous times. These stories of Cajun treasure and lost jewels will teach readers the importance of resourcefulness, courage and responsibility. 
Publishers Weekly wrote, "While the tales of African Americans and Native Americans have been much anthologized, the vibrant oral folk tradition of the Cajun has been more or less neglected by American publishers. This excellent anthology by Reneaux helps plug that inexplicable gap. Reneaux, a noted storyteller and a Cajun herself, retells 27 tales she heard in childhood from relatives or has heard since from fellow Cajuns. Their folklore is as spicy and interesting as their famed food and reflects a variety of flavors and influences."

Cajun Folktales (American Storytelling)

Teen & Young Adult

Reneaux, J. J. J.

This well-researched addition to treasure hunter, W.C. Jameson's Buried Treasure series will ignite the imaginations of young readers and inspire them to go out and explore.
This fifth volume in W.C. Jameson's Buried Treasure series contains 38 tales gathered from the breadth of the American South. Eight states are included: Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, Tennessee, Alabama, Louisiana, and Mississippi. Jameson includes classic treasure stories like “The Lost Treasure of Pirate William Kirk” (Virginia), “Chief Sontechee's Silver Hoard” (North Carolina), “Natchez Trace: Treasure Trail” (Mississippi), and legends of Indian hoards, Civil War caches, lost mines, and robbery stashes.
He even includes a report of one recovered treasure in "Found: The Long-lost Treasure of the SS Central America" (South Carolina). Along with hidden pirate and indian loot, readers will also find messages of courage, responsibility and resourcefulness in these treasure hunt adventures.

Buried Treasures of the South

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