ROOTABAGA STORIES

Narrator Zura Johnson breathes new life into this vintage collection of interconnected whimsical short stories by famed poet Carl Sandburg. Rootabaga Country is home to denizens with names like Blixie Bimber and Jason Squiff. Residents "snizzle" and "sniffer" and find enchanted "whinchers." Johnson blithely treats nonsense words in the same way she treats actual words, making stories like "How the Hat Ashes Shovel Helped Snoo Foo" seem equally plausible and ridiculous. She creates distinct character voices for the entire population--many of whom live in the Village of Liver-and-Onions. As you would expect from Sandburg, the prose is poetic, and Johnson maintains a fun, upbeat tempo while highlighting the many instances of repetition, alliteration, and rhyme. L.T. © AudioFile 2020, Portland, Maine [Published: SEPTEMBER 2020]