The Legend of Slappy Hooper

The Legend of Slappy Hooper
Retold by Aaron Shepard
illustrated by Toni Goffe

My Rating: 5 out of 5

Genre: American Tall Tale

Slappy Hooper is the "World's biggest, fastest, and bestest sign painter". In fact, his paintings are so good that people thought they were too good! The signs he paints come to life and wreak havoc on his little town. After a few of these incidents, people decided they weren't going to hire Slappy anymore and he decides to climb to the top highest bridge and throw his painting supplies into the river. Just as he was about to hoist his supplies over the bridge, an angel stops him and tells him The Boss likes his work and has a few jobs for him to do. First, Slappy is responsible for painting a rainbow in the sky. To his surprise, Michael said The Boss loves it and wants him to do a bigger job. The Boss wants Slappy to take over the responsibility of painting the sunrise and the sunset, as he had been doing it since the dawn of time and was growing rather tired. Slappy was more than happy to oblige, and has been up in the sky ever since - painting gorgeous sunrises and sunsets that are never too good.

I would recommend this tall tale to students in second and third grade. It is a great story to tell in leu of the traditional American tall tales such as Paul Bunyan and Pecos Bill. Students will appreciate Slappy Hooper as loveable guy who just wants to paint, and eventually finds his place.