As a school teacher I find that children from grades one through five love and repeat the rhymes, jokes and stories in this book.

This book shows the breadth and scope of meanings that are carved into wooden chains by Indiana craftsmen. Folklorist Simon Bronner begins his study with a simple question: Why would anyone spend hours and hours carving out wooden chains? The answers that he finds show that simple questions often have complex answers. Bronner provides a glimpse into the souls of the carvers as he reveals the significant aspects of the aesthetic and emotional dimensions of life history that are crafted into the art of the carvers.

This is a good book for anyone interested in the progressive era in Pennsylvania. It's well-written, with photos and biographical information as well as discussions of various issues in folklore studies. It's a useful book to read if you have come across Henry W. Shoemaker's writings doing research on Pennsylvania, as I have, and wondered what sort of standing the author has in the world of folklore. Shoemaker is, of course, from an earlier age of scholarship, when the "gentleman amateur" was at the forefront of things. Henry W. Shoemaker was a fascinating individual, although I must admit that I'm biased because my family history is from many of the areas that were of interest to him.

Old-time fiddling is often regarded as a Southern folk tradition in America. Many of the tunes and various styles of playing are distinctively Southern. What Bronner does, however, is to expand upon this idea and show that the Northeast also is home to a fascinating fiddle tradition. He provides life histories and descriptions of styles of playing in New York. Much of what Bronner writes about shows that the old-time music is also a characteristic cultural tradition of regions across America. Couple Bronner's work with interesting descriptions of fiddling out West from Kenner Kirtchner and fiddling traditions in the Midwest in the book, "Farmhouse Fiddlers," and we have a much more comprehensive idea of fiddle playing in the USA.