After moving from Tennessee to Montana, Angel adjusts to life on the prairie. Soon in need of a horse, she tackles a dust storm with a horse large enough for her to ride at the heart of it. Can she and her new companion, Dust Devil, defeat Backwards Bart and his Desperados?
The illustrations in this book are big and grand just like the main character in the story. The scenes give you a sense of the vastness of the land and the stature of our heroine. The pictures of the outlaw gang are silly and wild giving life to their characters. Life on the American frontier is shown in the setting from the dresses to Betty's kitchen and the dress of the bandits. All of this is set against wood grain margins that help enforce the western feel.
The writing is fun and full of figurative language that grabs the reader's attention at every turn. Readers learn why there are geysers in Montana and how Sawtooth Mountains got their name. This book will be revisited again and again.
" Once again, Isaacs’ story and Zelinsky’s oil-paint-on-wood artwork create a laugh-out-loud tall tale with folksy phrasing and slapstick exaggeration. There are really two adventures in one here, which makes for a lengthy read-aloud, but children will delight in the deadpan, Old West narration and every gleefully silly, expertly rendered visual detail, from Bart’s steed (a saloon-sized mosquito) to Angel’s full-branched pine-tree knitting needles. A few pourqoui elements wrap up this handsomely designed, thoroughly entertaining stand-alone sequel." -Gillian Engberg, Booklist
"Singsongy, colloquial narration guides readers from predicament to outlandish predicament with humor and folksy charm. Angel’s antics, pictured in oval and rectangular panels and surrounded by rippling wood grains, neatly explain the topography of the West in traditional folk-story fashion (wrestling the bucking bronco, Angel’s feet drag across the ground, creating the Grand Canyon). Zelinsky’s rustic oil illustrations offer a gallery of comic faces, frozen in exaggerated surprise, shock and frustration. Artfully crude, comedic artwork, friendly, understated narration and a wildly hyperbolic story combine to create a new classic." -Kirkus
Book Information:
Isaacs, A. (2010). DUST DEVIL. Illustrated by Paul O. Zelinsky. New York: Schwartz & Wade Books. IBSN 978037596722
What next?
It is helpful but not necessary to read Swamp Angel as it introduces the main character and her journey to get to Montana.
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