This timely introduction to the census is set in 1790, where skeptical residents of a small Vermont town try to trick the man who has been sent to count their population for the rst United States Census

Tricking the Tallyman takes place in 1790, the year of the first U.S. census. Phineas Bump is sent to the town of Tunbridge, Vermont to tally the people who live there. The Pepper family does not want to be counted for fear that the government will ask their town to pay more taxes and send more soldiers to war. They decide to trick the tallyman into miscounting their town's population. This book is both funny and informative. It teaches the history of the census in a lighthearted way and explains why it is important. I appreciate that in the author's note Davies explains that people were counted differently based on age, race, and gender. ( )

Tricking the Tallyman is a cute story with the moral that tells children to always be honest. It is set right around the time that the US constitution was instated. There is a man going from town to town on horseback tallying how many people there are in each town. There are rumors that go around as for why he has to count people. The townspeople get together to trick him into thinking there are more, less, and then finally the correct amount of people i the town. It is important that this book is set during this time because it leads to the reader understanding of why tricking the tallyman was so important. They were unaware of whether or not this was a good or bad thing for their town because the Constitution was just set into place. They were unaware of how this number of people would affect them.
The book is written in a playful style. There are times when the reader will giggle because of the attitudes of the characters. I enjoy that at the end of the book, we see that it is always best to tell the truth. Was it predictable? Yes, but it is still a great message for children of all ages. ( )

If you want to introduce the census in a fun clever way this is the book for you. The book is about a town that doesn't want the census to count them so they come up with ways to trick him. The story and illustration pull you in, will they trick the tallyman? Must have for any social studies teacher. ( )

Phineas Bump and his traveling adventures through the small Vermont town of Tunbridge turn through the events of the first great U.S. census of 1790 as the government sought the ambitious task of counting everyone. How could this have been done? Without computers, calculators, and modern technology? well in this piece of historical fiction, the cunning and determined Phineas Bump exhumes all his options as he meets an unruly mother and her children, all determined that the Tally Man is of not good intent. In the end you learn a urgent piece of history, that to this day census taking is big business and important to our civil society and structure of government. It is very well written and young students will be enthralled by all of its innuendo. ( )