Book Review of Dust Devil by Anne Isaacs

1.      Bibliography

Isaacs, A. 2010. Dust devil. (Zelinsky, P. O). Schwartz & Wade Books. ISBN: 9780375967221

2.      Plot Summary

Angelica Longrider is a giant and loves to help and do the right thing.  When a dust storm rolls into town, she quickly wrangles the dust devil and tames it.  Soon after the dust storm some outlaws come to town causing some trouble.  Angel won’t stand for that and decides to take matters into her own hands and puts a plan together to get these outlaws in jail where they belong.

3.      Critical Analysis

Montana gets a playful story about how all the landforms came to be in this tall tale by Isaacs.  The story takes place in 1835 and stars Angel who was too big for Tennessee, so she moved to Montana.  Throughout the story you find out the tales of how different landforms were made, like Sawtooth Ridge, The Grand Canyon, and how gold was found in California.  The book has a lot of similes, which makes for some very funny comparisons.  Back in 1835, women didn’t have the same rights as men but that didn’t stop Angel when the sheriff told her he couldn’t deputize her because she was a woman.  Angel went out and found a new way to gather the outlaws that were terrorizing her town and got the justice she was looking for.  This just shows that women can do great things when they are determined. 

The illustrations are very detailed and are beautifully painted on the page.  Each page has a frame of wood around it like you are looking at a picture on a wall.  Different facial expressions are obvious in this book and can tell the story without any words.  Zelinsky added small details that some may pass over but as you look carefully you notice so many added characters and funny specifics. 

This is a story that will have children laughing and retelling over and over again.  Maybe the girls will even want to grow up to be like Angel one day.

4.      Review Excerpt(s)

“A stunning tour de force” —School Library Journal, starred review

“A new classic.” —Kirkus Review, starred review

5.      Connections

*I would use this book with children to talk about things that could really happen and things that wouldn’t happen.  Since this is a tall tale you obviously cannot ride on a 10 foot mosquito. 

*This would also be great for a mental image lesson, have the students close their eyes and draw a picture of what they think the image would look like and compare that to the actual picture.