Book Review of Swamp Angel

 

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Isaacs, Anne. 1994. SWAMP ANGEL. Ill. by Paul O. Zelinski. New York, NY: Dutton Children’s Books, a division of Penguin Books USA Inc. ISBN 0525452710

 

PLOT SUMMARY

Angelica Longrider was an unusual baby born in 1800’s Tennessee. When born, she was taller than her mother, and a giant by the age of 12. She performed incredible feats of strength. She became known as Swamp Angel after rescuing settlers in a swamp. She later fought a massive bear. She threw it so high in the sky that she had to use a tornado to lasso the bear to bring him down to earth. The dust they raised as they fought gave the name to the Great Smokey Mountains. To avoid drowning in a lake during the fight, Swamp Angel drank a lake dry. They fought for days and nights. They even fought in their sleep. They snored down forests while they slept, and it was a giant tree crushing the bear that ended the battle. The people of Tennessee had a massive feast consuming the bear. The bear pelt became known as the Shortgrass Prairie. A constellation was created from when Swamp Angel had thrown the giant bear into the sky.        

 

CRITICAL ANALYSIS

This book is worthy addition to the pantheon of tall tales. It checks off all the traditional literary elements of this genre:

  1. A superhuman heroine who is very strong and very large
  2. A rural setting
  3. An adversarial condition that affects everyone and that is overcome with strength

Anne Isaacs does an excellent job of creating this original American tall tale.

 

Paul Zelinski’s artwork is rough, but that goes along well with the storyline of a time and place in America that was very rough itself. Where Zelinski excels is in making the Swamp Angel and the bear actually look gigantic in his pictures of them. You really feel their huge size as you look at them in the book.

 

AWARDS AND REVIEW EXCERPTS

CALDECOTT Honor Book 1995

BOSTON GLOBE-HORN BOOK AWARD Honor Book 1995

ALA NOTABLE BOOK 1994

SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL Best Books of 1994  

 

CONNECTIONS

* This would be a good starter book to read with students prior to them writing their own tall tales. Students will learn literary elements such as exaggeration, and how to create landmarks from imaginary activities of super-powerful humans or animals.

* Other books related to this one:

Kellogg, Steven. PECOS BILL. ISBN 9780688099244

Kellogg, Steven. PAUL BUNYAN. ISBN 9780688058005

Kellogg, Steven. MIKE FINK. ISBN 9780688135775

Kellogg, Steven. JOHNNY APPLESEED. ISBN 9780688064174

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