TWU LS 5603 - Traditional Lit Reviews - SWAMP ANGEL

BIBLIOGRAPHY #3

 Isaacs, Anne, and Paul O. Zelinsky. 1994. SWAMP ANGEL. New York: Dutton Children's Books ISBN 0525452710

PLOT SUMMARY

This tall tale is the story of Angelica, a Tennessee girl who is nicknamed Swamp Angel. She is a bigger than life character who tackles a community’s biggest enemy, a bear named Tarnation, who has stolen all the food for winter.  After Swamp Angel captures and kills the bear, the community can survive the winter on the remains of the bear.

CRITICAL ANALYSIS

This tall tale is a perfect supplement to a geography lesson about the Great Smoky Mountains and its surrounding area.  The illustrations are beautifully drawn on a background of faux wood grain and are detailed with such great expanded aspects of the story that a reader would have a multitude of additional comments about the storyline. The facial expressions of the community show a desperation and fragileness that the Swamp Angel counters with her soft and sweet characteristics. The text is in the style of a spoken Tennessee dialect with phrases like “why, that varmint would rip the door off a food cellar and gobble up the whole winter’s rations without waiting for a napkin.” There is a mythological aspect of this story by explaining a natural occurrence using a human story. For instance, the Swamp Angel tossed the bear into the sky and left his impression in the stars and the dust stirred up by the wrestling of the bear left the mountains “smoky.”

REVIEW EXCERPT(S)

Book Links (ALA) 10/01/08                                               

Notable Best Books (ALA)

BOOKLIST                                                               

School Library Journal 11/01/97

Caldecott medal Honor                                          

School Library Journal starred

Elementary School Library Collection 06/01/00

Wilson’s Children 10/01/06

Booklist starred (1994) - “Isaacs tells her original story with the glorious exaggeration and uproarious farce of the traditional tall tale and with its typical laconic idiom--you just can't help reading it aloud.”

Horn Book starred (1995) - “Zelinsky, working on cherry and maple veneers, has adapted elements of American folk art; his sense of line matches the exuberance of the text so that the effect is a seamless interpretation.”

 

CONNECTIONS

Wheeler, Lisa, and Kurt Cyrus. 2003. AVALANCHE ANNIE: A NOT-SO-TALL TALE. San Diego: Harcourt. ISBN 0152167358

·         Partner this book in discussing other tall tales

Isaacs, Anne, and Paul O Zelinsky. 2010. DUST DEVIL. New York: Schwartz & Wade Books.

ISBN 0375867228

·         Partner this book as a sequel to Swamp Angel

Johnson, Paul Brett. 2001. FEARLESS JACK. New York: Margaret K. McElderry Books ISBN 0689832966

·         Partner this book to have a male main character in a tall tale