Easy Books, those intended for the youngest new readers and pre-readers are often interesting. One of the things that most interests me at the library is that sometimes true stories get categorized as fiction and fanciful tales sometimes get marked as non-fiction. Tricking The Tallyman is a delightful fictional story about the real life first United States census in 1790. The folks in the town of Turnbridge, Vermont don’t want to be counted. So when the tallyman arrives at the first door in town, he is told by a Mrs. Pepper that the town does Not want to be counted. Undaunted he turns in for the night then returns the next day. When he returns in the morning he finds that Mrs. Pepper is the only person in the town. Following the law of that time, he posts his tally on a tree for 24 hours so that any who dispute it may come forward. The residents of Turnbridge meanwhile find out that the census is to be used to determine how much federal aid and money each town will receive. When he counts the second time the residents trick him again and have him count every man, woman, child and animal in the town as a person. Again he posts the results to a tree and waits a day for anyone to dispute them. Then finally the residents learn that the census will be used both to determine how much money will be distributed to the town and t0 determine how many men each town can send to the army. At last the residents allow the tallyman to get an accurate count. Apparently based on a true story, Tricking The Tallyman can nonetheless be found in the Easy picture books section, under fiction. Tricking The Tallyman. Recommended.
Title: Tricking The Tallyman Author: Jacqueline Davies Illustrator: S.D. Schindler Publisher: Knopf Format: Hardcover Publication Date: 2009
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