Take a look at our
Tall Tale Bibliography

Tall tale heroes were usually:
  - gigantic - restless - courageous - powerful - heroic - flamboyant

The stories also offered:
 - a strong sense of place
 - a sense of community and past (through shared stories and experiences)
 - a showcase for local landscape, animals, weather, occupations, etc.
 - absurd humor and outlandish feats

They originally weren't just stories for children: they were the "TV" of the day, entertainment and performance around campfires or at community gatherings.

Were they about real people?

Were they folk tales?

Some examples:
- Davy Crockett and Johnny Appleseed (John Chapman) were real people.
- Pecos Bill was first written by Edward O'Reilly
- Febold Feboldson was invented by a Nebraska lumberman
- Sally Ann Thunder Ann Whirlwind Crockett was invented by Mary Pope Osborne (Davy Crockett had a wife, but there is little information about her; Osborne created the tales)
- Paul Bunyan: it isn't known whether his stories started with logger's tales, but both a journalist and a lumberman have been credited with the first written accounts of his exploits.
- John Henry may have started as a real person but this is uncertain.

George Filinger, the creator of the Johnny Kaw stories, followed a long, honored tradition when he wrote the Johnny Kaw stories in 1955. He knew tall tales and Kansas history and geography well, and he wanted Johnny to be bigger and better than all the rest. He particularly wanted a farmer tall tale hero because he felt farming was so important to Kansas. 

He wrote the stories to connect them with Kansas life in so many ways that Johnny was "responsible" for just about everything we associate with the state of Kansas, from the Kansas (Kaw) River Valley to sunflowers, from wheat farming to the rivalry between the Jayhawk and the Wildcat. Johnny created the pioneer trails and even invented catfish.

For more information about George Filinger, the history of the original Johnny Kaw book, and how and when the giant statue was built, see our book,
Johnny Kaw - The Pioneer Spirit of Kansas
or visit:
More about the 30 foot tall Johnny Kaw statue
The Johnny Kaw story is now in print in our anthology:
Kansas Tall Tales.

Jerri Garretson enjoyed retelling the tale of Johnny Kaw and wanted to create another Kansas tale with a woman as the hero. She got the idea for Kansas Katie while driving across the Kansas prairie one September when the sunflowers were blooming in profusion all along the highway. 

In writing the story, Jerri integrated these two Kansas stories and added information on sunflowers. 

At a craft show, Jerri discovered a classmate of hers, Gayla Brown, whom she hadn't seen in many years. Gayla had been a friend of hers in elementary school and now was selling dolls she made . . . and there was "Kansas Katie."  Click here to see a photo of the Kansas Katie doll.

Kansas Katie is the first book Jerri illustrated alone. The book (cover at left) is now out of print but is included in our anthology: Kansas Tall Tales.