SWAMP ANGEL

 

SWAMP ANGEL

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Isaacs, Anne, 1994. SWAMP ANGEL. Ill by Paul Zelinsky. NewYork, NY: Dutton Children's Books. ISBN 0525452710

PLOT SUMMARY
In this hugely entertaining, inspiring story about Angelica Longrider who was born in 1815 who was "scarcely taller than her mother and couldn't climb a tree without help," Isaacs creates an unlikely heroine.  In this traditional tall tale about Swamp Angel (who got her name from saving passengers of a wagon train that "got mired in Dejection Swamp") competes against the Tennessee men in trying to kill Thundering Tarnation, a huge bear who ate all of the settlers' food.  The men taunted Swamp Angel asking her if "she should be home mending a quilt or baking a pie?"  She replied, "I aim to....a bear pie."  After Tarnation got the worst of all of the men, Swamp Angel and the giant bear get into an incredible brawl where Swamp Angel swings a tornado around like a giant lasso, drinks a whole lake dry and snores down a whole forest and eventually defeats the bear!  In this hugely exaggerated tall tale, Swamp Angel manages to create The Great Smoky Mountains, Ursa Major (The Big Bear constellation) and the Montana Shortgrass Prairie with her enormous shenanigans.  By the end of the story, Swamp Angel is a hero and the whole state of Tennessee celebrates with her in the "biggest celebration the state had ever known."  

CRITICAL ANALYSIS
In this original traditional tall tale, Isaacs uses exaggeration and a primitive style of wording to tell the story that is set in 1815.  The story is hilarious from beginning to end.  You know right from the beginning that you are in for an enormous tale without even reading the words.  The illustrations in this book steal the show!  They are superb.  Swamp Angel 's mother is holding this gigantic baby (Swamp Angel) in the very first picture.  Throughout the book, Zelinsky creates pictures of Swamp Angel doing outlandish and impossible things.  She almost seems to be too big for the book because she is bending over in the pictures on the pages.  Her name fits her face which always is shown with an "angelic" smile and she wears a bonnet just to remind us that she is a girl afterall.  Not to discount the brilliant writing of Isaacs, but I think that I could only look at the pictures and still know what happened in the story.  This was a very entertaining and inspiring tale showing a girl overcoming huge odds to help save her community!

AWARDS
1994 Caldecott Honor Book
1995 Boston Globe-Horn Book Honor Book
1994 ALA Notable Book 
NEW YORK TIMES Best Illustrated Books of 1994
SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL Best Books of 1994
BOOKLIST Children's Editors Choices 1994
PUBLISHER'S WEEKLY Best Books of 1994

REVIEW EXCERPTS
"Move over, Paul Bunyan, you are about to meet Swamp Angel, an original creation in the tall-tale tradition whose exploits are guaranteed to amaze and amuse a wide swath of readers. . . Visually exciting, wonderful to read aloud, this is a picture book to remember." -- starred review, HORN BOOK, March/April 1995, M.M.B.

"It is Ms. Isaacs's dry, tongue-in-cheek style, moving us from possibility to impossibility, matched by the stunning primitive and burlesque-style oil paintings done on wood veneers by Paul O. Zelinsky, that makes this book one of the most intriguing and hilarious tall tales to be published in recent years. . . There are very few tall tales about extraordinary women in American folklore compared to those that extol the virtues of men, and this comic rendition about a gifted, powerful and helpful woman is in all ways superb." -- NEW YORK TIMES, 11/13/94, by Jack Zipes
SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL:
"She (Isaacs) captures the cadence of the genre perfectly with its unique blend of understatement, exaggeration, and alliteration. Zelinsky paints his primitive views of Americana with oil on veneer, a choice that gives each page a grainy border, well suited to this backwoods tale. A master of composition, he varies readers' perspectives by framing the portrait of the newborn and, later, the series of male hunters with small ovals. He uses double-page lunettes to depict the massive bear and woman sprawled across the pages, and places the menacing beast lunging over the frame in another memorable scene. The pictures and words cavort across the page in perfect synchronization, revealing the heroine's feisty solution." Wendy Lukehart, Dauphin County Library, Harrisburg, PA, 1994

CONNECTIONS
This story has a female hero which is not very common.  This is a great opportunity to teach young girls (and boys) that girls can accomplish anything boys can and that they can be leaders in their communities.

This book could be used to introduce Science or Socal Studies lessons to discuss The Great Smoky Mountains, The Montana Shortgrass Prairie and even to introduce astronomy lessons about the stars and the universe.

Pair this picture book with Lester and Pinkney's JOHN HENRY for a gigantic tall-tale celebration.

Another must read is DUST DEVIL, an entertaining companion to SWAMP ANGEL also written by Anne Isaacs and illustrated by Paul Zelinsky.