With a Whoop and a Holler: A Bushel of Lore from Way Down South

by Nancy Van Laan

In this rich, rousing anthology, Nancy Van Laan takes readers on a romp through the bayous, mountains, and lowlands of the American South. Her retellings are full of energy, spunk, and that distinctive voice that makes Southern stories among our nation's most beloved. Readers will meet unforgettable characters like Brer' Rabbit, Fool John, and Ol' Gaily Mander, and learn a whole passle of poems, sayings, and superstitions to live by. Scott Cook's illustrations practically jump off the pages -- they're perfectly suited to a book that's full to the brim with that inimitable Southern love for good storytelling.

Library Binding

First published January 1, 1998

About the author

Nancy Van Laan was born in Baton Rouge, La. Her father was a colonel in the US Air Force, and the family moved frequently as Van Laan was growing up. She began making up stories to pass the time on long car trips. Although Van Laan had a learning disability, she loved to read. She began drawing and writing poetry as a child and enjoyed illustrating her own stories. Van Laan also loved ballet and began taking lessons at the age of nine. By age seventeen, she had her own ballet company in Birmingham that performed on a weekly program broadcast on Alabama Educational TV (now Alabama Public Television). Van Laan’s dancing career ended after an injury she sustained as a student at Sullins College in Bristol, Va. After completing her AA degree at Sullins, she enrolled at the University of Alabama, earning her BA in radio and television in 1961.

Van Laan moved to New York after college. She worked briefly at an advertising company and then joined ABC-TV where she worked as a network censor from 1962 to 1966. Van Laan began writing at this time and also studied art. After her first two children were born, she resigned from ABC and began painting professionally, creating murals for schools and private clients. She earned an MFA in theater from Rutgers University in 1979 and wrote two plays which were performed regionally. Van Laan moved to eastern Pennsylvania where she taught English at a private boarding school from 1984 to 1989. She also taught creative writing at Rutgers from 1986 to 1989. Van Laan published her first book, The Big Fat Worm, in 1987. Two years later, she left teaching to write full time. Since then, Van Laan has published over two dozen books. One of these, Rainbow Crow, was featured on the PBS television series Reading Rainbow. Van Laan lives and writes in Doylestown, Pa.

Reviews

[Voracious_reader · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked Parts 2 and 3 but not Part 1 so much. It was an ok book with pretty great illustrations. My fear is that it's just another coffee table book for adults clothed as a children's book. Do super-artsy highly graphic illustrations appeal to children? I don't know. I suspect that the illustrations appeal to older kids Mainly. Nonetheless, I liked the Superstitutions and Wise Old Sayings. Also, I liked the fable/morality tale stories--i.e., the stories that "explain" why animals are the way they are.

[Lynn Davidson · Rating 4 out of 5]

A selection of silly and amusing stories and poems based in the southern US and collected by the author. Fun illustrations.

[Maureen · Rating 4 out of 5]

The folklore of the American South is cleverly shared through stories, poems, sayings, and supersitions. The book is arranged into three geographic sections to accurately relate the regional folklore of the bayous, the deep south, and Appalachia. You will be delighted by the quirky Southern versions of traditional trickster and noodlehead tales. Introduce your primary and early intermediate students to the exploits of Fool John and Brer Rabbit, and invite them into the world of southern style humor with its unique language, characters, and style.

This folktale book is engaging because it relates the folklore of the American South through a variey of formats; stories, poems, sayings, chants, and "wise ol'" sayings. You can't read them aloud without succumbing to your best dialectic impressions. This book would be a clever way to invite children into storytelling by having them rehearse some of the verses and sharing them during readers' theater. The whimsical illustrational enhance the mood, time, place, and music of the literature.

[Benjamin Kite · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very good, full of funny poems and such.

[Jennie · Rating 1 out of 5]

Just not my cup of tea, and did not serve me well in my research.

[Heydi Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

Southern-style bedtime stories and rhymes, who know they would be so funny?