Rootabaga

Sandburg is also beloved by generations of children for his Rootabaga Stories and Rootabaga Pigeons, a series of whimsical, sometimes melancholy stories he originally created for his own daughters.

carl sandburg | father to son « poetry dispatch & other notes from the underground 2008

And so if you are going to the Rootabaga country you will know when you get there because the railroad tracks change from straight to zigzag, the pigs have bibs on and it is the fathers and mothers who fix it.

Rootabaga Stories Carl Sandburg 1922

"Look out of the window and see if the pigs have bibs on," said Gimme the Ax. "If the pigs are wearing bibs then this is the Rootabaga country."

Rootabaga Stories Carl Sandburg 1922

Liver-and-Onions, known as the biggest city in the big, big Rootabaga country.

Rootabaga Stories Carl Sandburg 1922

Golden Spike Limited, the fastest long distance train in the Rootabaga

Rootabaga Stories Carl Sandburg 1922

What makes the Rootabaga stories more than Edward Learian jingles and Rimbaudian indeterminacy for kids is how Sandburg brings the looseness of nonsense thinking to all aspects of the tales: plots fail to develop, characters 'actions have no meaning, conflicts have no resolutions.

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