Friday, October 5, 2007

Liza Lou and the Yeller Belly Swamp

Liza Lou And The Yeller Belly Swamp
Mercer Mayer ~ Aladdin, 1976


This book absolutely haunted me up until a few years ago. Once on a family visit to Nantucket when I was a girl, I spotted this book in a bookstore and had been enchanted by it. I only read it once, and we didn't buy it, and I never saw it again, but the story stayed with me. More than ten years ago now, I Dogpiled (ha! remember those days before Google!?!) the words swamp/little girl/swamp monster/book and was reunited with the pictures that had so long ago influenced me.

It was funny, too, that it would be by Mercer Mayer since I probably had every Little Critter book known to man at the time.

Yeller belly cottonmouth,
Possum up a tree,
You can catch the swamp fever
But you can't catch me.


I suppose being from the south and actually living nearby to real swamps made this book come alive all the more... the evil ghost of a Confederate soldier, the swamp witch, cotton mouths, and how the brilliant little girl outsmarts them all. She even sticks it to the devil himself!

I guess since I had my own swamp monsters of the imagination, it was gratifying to see a female kicking butt on the creepy crawlies of the dark. I have to give this book 80 thumbs up... plus my son gets a huge kick out of it which is all the more awesome.

Also by:
Liza Lou and the Yeller Belly Swamp
One Monster After Another
Professor Wormbog in Search for the Zipperump-A-Zoo
Me and My Flying Machine
Beauty and the Beast
A Special Trick
Bubble Bubble
OOPS
One Frog Too Many
How the Trollusk Got His Hat
Little Monster at Work
AH-CHOO
The Bird of Time
Herbert the Timid Dragon
Professor Wormbog's Gloomy Kerploppus
Boy, Was I Mad

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10 comments:

  1. This was definitely one of my childhood favorites.

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  2. This is consistently one of my daughter's top 10 bedtime pics!

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  3. My favorite book when I was growing up. She was a little girl who looked like me & wasn't scared of anything. I just found an original edition on eBay & bought it so my little girl (due 12/12) will be able to read her too. It's exactly the same book that I used to have when I was a kid.

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  4. just bought this as a a Xmas present. Thanks for the recommendation.

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  5. So glad you added the scans! I'm going to pull out our copy and read it tonight in honor of your effort!!

    BTW, have you ever read/reviewed The Maggie B? Love that dang book! Not sure why Liza Lou reminded me of it...but if you haven't already, it's worth checking out.

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  6. Maggie B? You've stumped me.... must google now!

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  7. It's by Irene Haas. It's a lovely book!

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  8. I had the same reaction recently--couldn't remember the name, but remembered the rich drawings, particularly the first one you posted. Imagine my pleasure when I finally tracked it down on Amazon and opened the book to find the pictures were even better than I remembered. And this time around I picked up that the swamp haunt is a confederate solider, and I finally know why a devil would want a parson's soul (never quite understood that as a kid.) Since it came in the mail, my 4 year old has asked me to read it to her EVERY DAY, and she sits and flips through it like I used too. We also had a great discussion about race, as my daughter commented on the color of Liza Lou's skin. Seriously, this is one of the best children's books ever, I can't think why it's not on every top list of must-have books for kids.

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  9. I loved this book ...grew up with it and will never forget the pictures. I am now going to share this with my grandchild!!

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  10. My Granny who worked hard all day long would read it to me about 3 times before I went to sleep means the world to me. Little Ms. Liza Lou is now framed hanging on my wall !
    FYI - I’m 42 ��

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