Books with author Donald Davis

The title story here is the story of my Mother's fear of snakes and of the way she eventually got passively even with me for making fun of her. She always came out on top. The second story we put on this recording is called 'The Red Coat,' as it is a story that happened in the same family setting. It is the story of how my father and his brothers-in-law finally stopped playing Christmas tricks on their sister-wives.

“This is a double set of double stories. The first set is made up of a story my Grandmother told me about when my mother broke her arm. . . twice! The second story in this set is my story of when we broke my little brother's collarbone. . . twice! It is about how trouble is genetic in families. The second set follows up with the same neighbor boys, the Leatherwoods, and shows what happens when two big brothers team up against two little brothers. It also shows us that fathers are always smarter than their sons!” --Donald Davis TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. Intro music (1:12) 2. Broken Bones (21:30) 3. The Last Spanking I Never Got (21:10) 4. “Portsmouth Homecoming” (5:19)

Audiences at storytelling festivals worldwide are passionate about Donald Davis and his deceptively soft-edged Appalachian stories. Developed in oral performance, Davis'stories resonate in the experiences of his listeners and readers. The fourteen stories in this, his signature title, are so convincingly private as to be universal. The laughter, silent tears, and thunderous applause these stories elicit in live performance and the many repeat-buyers who give the book to friend after friend prompted us to commemorate them in this anniversary edition.

Growing up in the Appalachian Mountains in the 1950s, Donald Davis heard his parents and grandparents tell tales about Jack. It seemed they were always talking about old Jack. As a child, Davis figured Jack to be some distant relative or other-side-of-the-mountain neighbor. In fact, he asked to visit Jack on numerous occasions but was repeatedly turned aside with one of those incomplete answers adults save especially for curious offspring.

Braces hurt. Braces are embarrassing. Braces are inconvenient. Many get fitted with them at the very time of their life when their self-confidence is lowest and their self-consciousness is highest. This coming-of-age story, created and performed by Donald Davis, employs the author's trademark characterizations and humor to explore the state of uncertainty that getting braces throws one into. Also includes another Davis favorite, Everybody Goes to the Beach.