Swamp Angel

Author: Anne Isaacs

Illustrator: Paul O. Zelinsky

Published by: Penguin Group, 1994

Genre: Picture Book, Traditional Lit

Age Range: grades 2-4

Caldecott Honor 1995

This book is a Tall Tale from the mountains of Tennessee. It is the tale of Angelica Longrider, kind of the female Paul Bunyan in size. She was taller than her mother when she was born and grew up playing with an ax and becoming known for her bravery. She got the name Swamp Angel by saving a group of covered wagons by picking them up and moving them out of the swamp. The real story, though, is about how she fights the pesky bear that came to be know as Thundering Tarnation in the neighborhood because he was stealing everyone's food, putting them in danger or not having anything stored up to eat through the winter. She joins in on the competition to put an end to his theivery. When everyone else fails, she accomplishes some pretty tall dilemmas and comes through triumphant in the end. She gets the bear and his hide and puts it in front of her cabin and today it is known as the Shortgrass Prairie. I love how tall tales usually end by giving you an explanation of why something in nature is the way it is. It just gives you even more of a since of pride of where you're from even though you know thats not why it is that way.

This was a funny tale that I have definately never heard before. It immediatly reminded me of the tall tales about Paul Bunyan because of Swamp Angel's size and the fact that it described her as "the greatest woodswoman in Tennessee." I liked how she was playing with axes, building log cabins, and was "second to none in buckskin bravery." I loved how the style of illustration fit in so well with the theme. They recall the look you would expect from the time in history that these stories derive.The illustrations were done in oil on wood veneer. The wood helps give it that old-timey feel, along with the oval and square compositions with the borders. The playfullness of the colors and the look of the characters also go along well with the story.

This book could tie in with lessons on the traditional arts of North America or of individual states. North Carolina and Tennessee would probably share a lot of cultural arts especially in the mountain regions.