Pennsylvania Young Reader's Choice Award
Master List for 2012–2013
New York Times
Dust Devil is listed as one of eight Notable Books of 2010.
New York Times
Tarnation! Seems like a mule's age since we've had a hero of American folklore worth wasting song and spit over, someone big enough to wear the boots of Paul Bunyan, Pecos Bill and John Henry, a giant who cuts canyons with his plow and seeds lakes with his tears.
Kirkus Reviews (Starred)
Isaacs and Zelinsky tell an even taller tale about Angelica Longrider, the outsized heroine of their hilarious, Caldecott Honor-winning Swamp Angel. Having outgrown Tennessee, Angel moves to roomy Montana, where she faces a wild dust-devil horse and a bandit named Backward Bart, born so ugly that his mother rolled him around backwards in his stroller. He walked, spoke and robbed backward ever since. Bart's garbled threats remain funny even after several readings. "Cash your gimme!" just doesn't get old.
School Library Journal
Zelinsky and Isaacs pull out all the stops in this dazzling companion to Swamp Angel (Dutton, 1994). Angelica "Angel" Longrider, the "wildest wildcat in Tennessee," has moved to Montana, "a country so sizable even Angel could fit in." The West seems to suit the feisty heroine, but she has trouble finding a horse powerful enough to carry her until she wrestles a violent storm and Dust Devil emerges mythically out of the fray.
Booklist (Starred)
Children who know Angelica Longrider, the "wildest wildcat in Tennessee" in the Caldecott Honor Book
Swamp Angel (1994), will cheer her return in this sequel that sends the barefoot, bear-wrestling giant to
Montana. After rearranging a mountain or two, Angel feels settled in her new home. All she needs is a
horse powerful enough to support her Himalayan size, and she finds her answer when a dust storm hits in
the summer of 1835. Leaping onto the swirling funnel clouds of grime, she wrestles the storm until it
Publishers Weekly (Starred)
In this romping sequel, Isaacs's far-fetched tall tale is again paired with Zelinsky's stunning American-primitive paintings, framed by the wood upon which they are painted.
Oppenheim Toy Portfolio
Welcome back Swamp Angel! Pee-yip! In this long overdue sequel to the award winning classic, Swamp Angel, the larger than life size heroine has moved to Montana, where there would be enough space for her gigantic self. But when great storms blow up in her new territory, Swamp Angel rides a cloud of dust and tames her own mighty steed, Dust Devil. Soon after that, the Angel and her dusty sidekick are faced with the villain, Backward Bart and his gang. These bad guys ride giant mosquitoes, since no self-respecting horses would carry such ornery Desperadoes.