Picture Book #8

Author:  Anne Isaacs
Title:  Swamp Angel
Illustrator:  Paul O. Zelinsky
Readability score:  Grade 3 to Grade 5
Genre:  Fiction
Subgenre:  Tall Tale, Fantasy
Theme:  Celebrate differences.  Bravery and courage can save others.
Primary and secondary characters:  Angelica Longrider, Thundering Tarnation
Awards:  Caldecott Winner 1994, Boston Globe Horn Book Honor 1995, ALA Notable book 1994
Date of Publication:  1994
Publishing company:  Dutton Children's Books
ISBN number:  0-525-45271-0

Swamp Angel is the story of Angelica Longrider, who was born in 1815 in Tennessee.  Angelica was a giant of sorts.  At two years old, she could build a log cabin.  She saved a wagon train from a swamp when she was twelve, earning her the title "Swamp Angel."  One summer, a giant bear comes and eats everyone's winter food supplies.  The settlers tried to kill him, but no one could.  He earns the name "Thundering Tarnation."  The settlers become desperate as Thundering Tarnation eats more and more food, so they set up a contest to kill the bear.  Angelica decides she shall kill the bear.  She signs up with all the other daredevils.  All of the hunters attempt to catch Tarnation, but they all fail.  It is up to Angelica to catch him.  Upon waking from a nap one day, she wakes up to find Thundering Tarnation watching her.  They begin to fight.  Swamp Angel throws the bear so high that he doesn't come back down.  She grabs a tornado and lassoes him to earth.  They fight in so much that they stir up dust all over the Tennessee hills, which become known as the Smoky Mountains.  After four days of fighting, Tarnation pins Angelica at the bottom of a lake.  She drinks all the water in the lake so that she can get air.  Angelica is stuck until she takes a plug of tobacco to Tarnation's nose and he sneezes her away.  She comes back and they fight again until they both fall asleep.  Their snoring takes down the trees.  Angelica snores so loud a tree falls on Thundering Tarnation and he is killed.  Angelica takes his hide and everyone in Tennessee eats bear that night. They fill their storage barns with bear, too.  Angelica takes Tarnation's hide as a rug and she moves to Montana, where she stays.  To this day, you can still see Thundering Tarnation's mark in the sky from when Swamp Angel threw him.

This book is a classic example of a tall tale.  I would use this book as an introduction to the tall tale genre.  I believe this book would be a nice change from the typical tall tale stories children hear or read.  I especially enjoy this story because I am a Tennessee native and can relate to some of the places depicted in the book, such as the Great Smoky Mountains.  I believe that my students could also relate to the story in this way.  I would read the story aloud to the students and then we would look for the characteristics of a tall tale exhibited in the story.  Expected responses might be, "Angelica is a giant."  "The bear is much bigger than real bears."  "Humans cannot drink an entire lake."  There are several other events in the book that the students could discuss.  I think it is extremely important to be knowledgeable about the environment in which we live.  Therefore, I would go over the characteristics of the story that represent Tennessee.  I would mention the Smoky Mountains and ask the students if they had ever visited or seen the "smoke" on the mountains.  We could talk about the tornado, which is a natural phenomenon that has affected many, many people in Tennessee in recent years.  We could also talk about the time period in which the story takes place and about real Tennessee events of the time period.