Swamp Angel

Title: Swamp Angel (Caldecott Honor Book)

Author: Anne Isaacs

Illustrator: Paul O. Zelinsky

Publisher & Publication Date: Dutton Children's Books, 1994

Genre: Folk tale, Picture book

Grade Level: 1-3

Summary: Swamp Angel is a folk tale of how the Great Smokey Mountains, Montana's Shortgrass Prairie and a constellation in the sky were all formed. Swamp Angel was a rather large lady who defeated a bear that was tormenting the people of Tennessee. While she was trying to capture the bear (Thundering Tarnation), many things happened and those are the explanations of why the landscape looks the way it does today.

Response: This was a beautiful story. The illustrations were gorgeous. Most of them were double-page spreads, but there were some single-page spreads. They were produced using oils on cherry, maple, and birch veneers. I am not used to reading folk tales, so this was a nice touch to the many traditional stories I have been reading. I like folk tales, I just haven't read very many of them that I can remember. It was very entertaining and made me laugh. It was a little sad when the bear died, but it was for the best and made the story fit into other folk tales of how things were formed.

Teaching Ideas: This is a good book to introduce folk tales. Ask your students if they have ever heard any folk tales and let them share if they have. Then read the book to them and talk about the places and things that are formed from the fight with the bear in the story. Ask if they have ever heard of these places, and if they have how they heard the place was formed. Then use this story and its places it introduces to do some research. Take the class to the library or computer lab and have the media assistant show them different informational items about the places. This would be a great learning experience as well as a way to show how to research.