Dust Devil

Dust Devil

by Anne Isaacs

illustrated by Paul O. Zelinsky

 

Anne Isaacs has written eight children's books. Her Swamp Angel received a 1995 Caldecott Honor Book award and Dust Devil was awarded a Caldecott Honor. Paul O. Zelinsky has received Caldecott Honors for three of his books as well as the 1998 Caldecott Medal for his illustrations in Rapunzel.

Dust Devil, the companion to Swamp Angel, tells the story of Angelica Longrider (nicknamed Swamp Angel) living in Montana in the 1830s. Angel creates buttes by moving mountains with her bare hands, caused it to rain milk all summer because of her gigantic cornfield, created geysers, created the Grand Canyon by scraping her feet along the ground and caught her giant horse out of a dust storm whom she named Dust Devil. Together Angel and Dust Devil have a wild adventure saving the town from Backward Bart and his Flying Desperados.


I love the Montana dialect that Isaacs uses ("I reckon" and "varmints" and "that's a beat") because it caused me read the story with an accent. Isaacs uses many similes and metaphors throughout her story:

• "Essie's biscuits were hard as horseshoes"
• "wind that bellows like a horse"
• "flatter than butter melting on a flapjack in a fry pan"
• "the wind tore across Montana faster than a baby ripping a newspaper"
• "the wind shrieked like a thousand trumpets playing out of tune"
• "no more buck in him than a baby"
• "opened up their toothless mouths and bawled like babies"
• "shave a cornfield balder than a parson"

Isaacs adds humor to her story by describing the tiny mosquitoes ridden by the Desperadoes and by explaining how Backward Bart does everything backwards, including talking. Angel has to speak backwards for him to understand: "Fight to prepare or stolen, you've gold the back give, varmints!"

The beautiful illustrations accompany the text perfectly. Zelinsky illustrates Montana showing mountains, plains, rivers, trees and sunsets with stunning colors, and each illustration is placed on top of different colored wood. Humor can be found not only in the text book in the illustrations as well. Angel is humorously large and Zelinsky shows her falling on animals, standing on mountains, throwing biscuits at the Desperadoes and knitting on top of a building. Backward Bart and the Desperadoes are drawn humerously as well, with ear hairs and nose hairs, big ears, abnormally large mustaches and ugly teeth.

Professional Reviews for Dust Devil

• School Library Journal: "A stunning tour de force and a satisfying continuation of Angel's saga."

• Booklist: "children will delight in the deadpan, Old West narration and every gleefully silly, expertly rendered visual detail."
• Kirkus: "Artfully crude, comedic artwork, friendly, understated narration and a wildly hyperbolic story combine to create a new classic."

Books by Anne Isaacs.

Click here for teaching activities.
Dust Devil video
Click here for books illustrated by Paul O. Zelinsky.

Anne Isaacs. Dust Devil. New York: Schwartz & Wade, 2004. 

ISBN 978-0-375-86722-4

$14.03 at Barnes & Noble

Work consulted: Vardell, Sylvia M. Children's Literature in Action: A Librarian's Guide. Connecticut: Libraries Unlimited, 2008.