Shutta Crum

A greedy man known as Old Tar Pockets takes one too many things he shouldn't in this Halloween-time retelling of a spooky folktale, digging up a hairy toe with a long yellow toenail still on it while stealing sweet potatoes from his neighbor's field. Figuring that finders are keepers, he takes the toe, putting it in the same pocket as the stick of hot tar he also stole. Later that night, when the terrible creature to whom the toe rightly belongs comes looking for it, Old Tar Pockets is unable to give it back, as it and the stick of tar are stuck fast in his pocket...

Reading Who Took My Hairy Toe?, I was immediately reminded of the traditional English tale, The Teeny Tiny Woman, about a little old lady who finds a bone in a graveyard and takes it home with her, only to be pursued by its ghostly owner. Leaving aside the oddness of this tale type—what's with people carting off human or human-adjacent body parts? is there some kind of history or meaning there? some cautionary tale about not disturbing remains?—I was interested to see that this parallel was mentioned in the author's note at the end of the book. This version of the story appears to be an African American variant of the tale, and appears in B.A. Botkin's 1949 A Treasury of Southern Folklore and M.A. Jagendorf's 1972 Folk Stories of the South. Apparently it is very similar to The Tailypo—an Appalachian folktale concerning a ghostly dog-like creature that seeks out its stolen tail—that has been retold in picture book form a number of times.

Leaving all of that aside, this telling was an engrossing one, with the repeated refrain, "Who Took My Hairy Toe" working to great effect in building suspense and terror. I can imagine this one being an excellent read-aloud for Halloween time, especially when paired with Katya Krenina's humorous artwork. I'd recommend it for Halloween story hour, and for telling around a campfire or in the dark during sleepovers.… (more)