Swamp Angel

by Anne Isaacs and Paul O. Zelinsky

Book Overview

Working in an American primitive style animated by the humor and storytelling genius for which he is renowned, Caldecott Winner artist Paul O. Zelinsky puts oils to cherry and maple for this tall-tale competition between a Tennessee woods-woman extraordinaire and a hungry, fearsome bear.Thundering Tarnation has a bottomless appetite for settler's grub. When word goes out about a competition to hunt this four-legged forest of stubble, a young woman,...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0525452710
• ISBN13: 9780525452713
• Release Date: September 1994
• Publisher: Dutton Books for Young Readers
• Length: 48 Pages
• Weight: 1.30 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 9.4" x 12.4"
• Age Range: 5 to 8 years
• Grade Range: Preschool to Grade 3

Customer Reviews

What's not to like?

A truly enjoyable folktale. With Paul Zelinsky's inventive and endlessly amusing illustrations, the book tells as well as it views. With sentences like, "Varmint, I'm much obliged for that pelt you're carryin'", Swamp Angel's showdown with the bear Thundering Tarnation is of epic proportions. Zelinsky has truly outdone himself in his portrayals of their fight. There are thousands of tiny illustrations hidden on each page for kids to discover and delight in. The fight itself is about good old-fashioned wrassling, and it's a joy to watch. Zelinsky painted his illustrations on actual wood veneer, hoping to give the book a folk-art feel of some sort. The result is a beautiful story that adults and kids will both enjoy. As I might have given away, I'm a fan. book could easily be paired with another tall tales, possibly that of the other gigantic hero Paul Bunyun or the great John Henry. Both would fit in well with this story, though Swamp Angel owes perhaps most of her telling to Pecos Bill more than anyone else.

A modern classic of epic proportions

What fun to have a tall tale that features a woman--and such a capable woman at that! Anne Isaacs has written a yarn that seems somehow to have been in the pantheon all along--much like Howard Pyles' "Pepper and Salt" stories, "Swamp Angel" is new as far as children's stories go, but has all the elements of the classic stories and so seems older and as wonderfully distinctive as the tales that have been around for generations.Isaacs tells us all about one red-headed, freckled young woman named Angelica Longrider. From the first, we know we are in for a wild ride when we see the picture of her rather startled-looking parents holding an enormous but contented baby--the text tells us calmly that Angelica was "scarcely taller than her mother and couldn't climb a tree without help." Things start moving at a pell-mell pace when we find out that a destructive black bear has so annoyed folks all around the Appalachian mountains of Tennessee that a reward has been offered for his hide. Angelica sets up to whup that bear and means to do the job right.The fight between Angelica and the bear is a wondrous portion of the story, told with great good humor, a number of winks at the reader, and the astonishing illustrations of Paul O. Zelinsky. "Swamp Angel" may well be Zelinsky's masterpiece. The pictures have the flavor of early American folk art, combined to great effect with Zelinsky's usual eye for telling detail and gorgeous use of color. They fit the style of the story so well and complement the action so sufficiently that it's as though Isaacs and Zelinsky are two halves of the same person. Rarely do the visions of both author and illustrator dovetail as cleanly as they do here, and it's our great good luck as readers that Isaacs and Zelinsky found each other. Three cheers for "Swamp Angel!"

A modern day tall tale

Angelica Longrider is known to the settlers of Tennessee as "Swamp Angel". She is a giant girl-turned-woman who helps settlers in need. A giant bear is eating all of the settlers' food and they cannot stop him. Swamp Angel grabs the bear and throws him into the sky, where his imprint can still be seen today as a constellation. He does not come back down, so Swamp Angel grabs a tornado and lassos the bear from the sky. The bear and Swamp Angel wrestle for many days and many nights. They even wrestle in their sleep. Swamp Angel snores so loudly that a tree falls down, killing the bear. The people rejoiced and ate many foods made from bear, including bear cake. Swamp Angel took the bear hide to Montana and lay it down like a rug. We now call that area Shortgrass Prairie. This story reminds me of a modern day Paul Bunyan. It is nice to have a tall tale with a female hero. The illustrations are unique and they add a lot to the story, showing things that Swamp Angel did that were not in the text. I recommend this book to all readers.

Reflection for Children's Literature

Swamp Angel is a children's picture book that is written by Anne Isaacs and illustrated by Paul Zelinsky. Angelica Longrider is no ordinary child, she was very large. Even at birth, she was larger than her mother. Angelica grew to be even bigger and stronger and used these characteristics to help people who were in trouble. One day, she came across a wagon train that was stuck in Dejection Swamp. She lifted the train out of the bog, and the travelers said that Angelica was an angel. Ever since, the towns people called her Swamp Angel. Swamp Angel killed a bear, Thundering Tarnation, that the men in Tennessee could not kill although they tried. Swamp Angel could be considered a fable because the book has morals that can be drawn from the story. It is not like Aesop's fables, discussed by Maharg, because Aesop's fables taught lessons including "simple virtues like loyalty, patience, honesty." Swamp Angel contains lessons that is important in today's society. The lesson is that women can do anything they put their minds to; hence they are not required to stay home "mending a quilt" like the men in the story say to Angelica. Another moral that can be gathered from the story is that people with special traits and talents need to use them in positive ways. Angelica could have stayed at home upset that she was so large, but she set out and rescued other people from fires, bears, and the swamp. Pflieger says that "fables seem a natural choice for picture books..." "In picture books, the main characters in fables lose their anonymity and become more individual." Having illustrations helps the audience get involved in the plot of the story and understand exactly what the character looks. Even though pictures can take away the imagination that could envisioning the characters, the audience understands that Angelica was bigger than her mother and bigger that anyone else. Angelica is seen in the pictures putting out fires and knitting, things that were not mentioned in the words. Since the illustrator added them, the pictures, not the words, helped the reader understand that there were more things besides the written items that Swamp Angel contributed to society. Things could be gathered from the picture without the author wasting words on them. Swamp Angel is entertaining, yet it can teach children lesson at the same time. The pictures are well-suited for the words and show many humorous events. The story is original because it shows a woman as a hero, which would usually be depicted as a man. Swamp Angel is also an interesting story because it named places in the United States and gives an imaginative explanation of how they were formed.

A story of mythical proportions told with great humor.

Swamp Angel is charming and hilarious. Words and pictures blend together to tell a wonderful tall tale of mythical proportions. It demands to be read out loud, preferably to a group of children or family and friends, with as much of an exaggerated hillbilly twang as the narrator can muster. Angelica Longrider, aka Swamp Angel, is reminiscent of Paul Bunyon in size and accomplishments, but is also feminine and feminist, making her a suitable heroine for impressionable young girls. Swamp Angel's conquest of the fierce, marauding giant bear, Thundering Tarnation, strikes one as a metaphor for the conquest of the wilderness by the pioneers of America. At the height of her conquest of the bear, Angelica praises its strength and tenacity. Above all, this book is a hoot to read, beautifully illustrated, and heralds an exciting new author on the childrens' book scene.