This story reminded me of one that sat on my bookshelf for almost my entire childhood. Kind of the strange illustrations maybe...? I did like this specific folktale however. ( )

In the same vein as other American folklore featuring larger-than-life characters such as Paul Bunyan or Pecos Bill, Swamp Angel is the story of Angelica Longrider, the greatest Tennessee woodswoman who ever lived. She is unbelievably huge, strong, and tough, and performs all manner of impossible feats such as rescuing an entire wagon train that was mired in a swamp. In this story, the people of Tennessee are being tormented by a giant bear that no one can seem to kill, named Thundering Tarnation. Angelica fights with the enormous bear with so much gusto that the dust they raised renamed the mountain range the Great Smoky Mountains. Eventually, Angelica triumphs, and everyone in Tennessee shares in eating the bear, the pelt of which Angelica takes to Montana and turns into the Shortgrass Prairie. Kids should be delighted with this extremely over-the-top take on American frontier life, the illustrations capture the humor in the story very well. ( )

Title: Swamp Angel
- Author: Anne Isaacs
- Illustrator: Paul O. Zelinsky
- Publisher: Dutton Childrens Books
- Date: September 1, 1994 (date published)
- Pages: 40
- Type of Book/Genre: Picture book, Fairytale
- Short Summary of the Plot: The story begins on August 1, 1815, in Tennessee when Angelic Longrider was born. She was a big baby, bigger than her mother, and when she grew older, she was practically a giant. She did incredible things like rescuing people, building a log cabin, and performed wonders. She became known as the Swamp Angel. There was a bear, the Thundering Tarnation, that was eating all the settlers food, so they put up a hunt with signs up to get it. The Swamp Angel signed up with all the men. All the men failed, but Swamp Angel had yet to meet the bear, when she did find him they got into a fight and she threw him into the heavens, and brought him back down with the help from a tornado. They fought for days, and Tarnation eventually pinned swamp angel to the bottom of a lake. She drank the whole lake to get some air, but even after that the bear would not let her go, so she got him to sneeze and she was released. They started to fight again, and fell asleep because they got tired. While they slept their snoring knocked down the whole forest. A tree ended up falling down on the bear and killed him, the whole town celebrated and had all kinds of bear food from him. Swamp angel kept his pelt and brought it with her to Montana, and the pelt is known as Shortgrass Prairie because of it. You can still see Thundering Tarnation in the stars on a clear night.
- Tags/Subject Heading that describes the Content: Giants, settlers, fighting, food.
- My response: I did not know what to expect when beginning this book, and I was pleasantly surprised.

Swamp Angel is a tall tale about a female legend who could do anything. She even rid a nearby town of its troublesome bear and kept the pelt for herself. Lots of fun with great illustrations. This book would go well with teaching Tennessee geography or would pair well with other tall tales. ( )

If you are looking for a book that you can teach with Paul Bunyan, than choose Swamp Angel. Much like Paul, and his giant ox Babe, this lovely tale will delight boys and girls as they read about how the Smoky Mountains were really made! Classic illustrations that show the early Tennessee countryside. ( )