Tricking the Tallyman

by: Jacqueline Davies
Illustrated by: S. D. Schindler

Tricking the Tallyman is a book about the great census shenanigans that happened in 1790. A women and her children hear news that the Tallyman is counting for their state to pay taxes to the government, so they try and trick the Tallyman into thinking there are very few people in their town. Then the young boy finds out that they are counting to send men to the government to represent them. This causes them to recount, resulting in a large number. Finally, after the young boy finds out that the tallying is for both taxes and representation in the government, the Tallyman counts again and finds a fair and truthful number.

I think this book is wonderful to teach young students about the process the government had to go through to count all the people in the United States in 1790. The book has historical points that many students would not know before. There is also an Author's Note at the back of the book that goes into more detail of what actually happened in 1790. I would highly recommend this book for elementary teachers.

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