I hadn't thought until lately how heavily weighted to the male side most American tall tales are. Two recent tall tales boast female heroines who are worthy of competing against the likes of John Henry and Paul Bunyan.
Feliciana Feydra Le Roux is the title of a Cajun tall tale by Tynia Thomassie. Feliciana's also a heroine for younger readers. Usually children need to be older to understand and appreciate the exaggeration of the tall tale genre, but this is an unusual tale. Feliciana Feydra LeRoux is introduced in the context of her family and this is always an important element for younger readers. Feydra is the "teetsie-walla" of her Grandpa Baby's grandchildren, that means "hoooo, he spoiled her rotten.... He taught her how to Cajun two-step, how to skin a chinchilla, and how to shuck an oyster faster than you can say "sauce piquant." Bathed in the comfort of loving family and the delight of words and expressions that are made to be read aloud, young listeners, five and up, will warm when Feliciana protests being left behind when Grandpa Baby and the men-children leave her behind to go off on the bayou alligator hunting. Stubborn Feliciana persists, gets herself in trouble, but takes care of problems herself with the pluck and nerve that is more believeable than in most tall tales.
Ann Isaacs luxuriates in the rhythms, images, and idioms of tall tales as she creates an original character, the Tennessee woodswoman, Swamp Angel, who's "second to none in buckskin bravery." Award-winning illustrator Paul Zelinsky has just as much fun painting primitives on cherry and maple veneers to bring alive the whimsy of the stories and the wild beauty of frontier America.
Both artists contribute to the rollicking fun, but neither sacrifice the story to their indulgences. Through a partnership of picture and prose they give us a strong and enduring heroine who's not daunted by the "hoots and taunts" of the coonskin-capped machos or a a bear named Tarnation with a pelt "equal to a whole year's hunting." Swamp Angel, which won a Caldecott-honor book last year, introduces fronteer life with a heroine and humor that is sure to engage children.