Meet Bingo and J’miah, raccoon brothers on a mission to save Sugar Man Swamp in this National Book Award finalist from Newbery Honoree Kathi Appelt.
Raccoon brothers Bingo and J’miah are the newest recruits of the Official Sugar Man Swamp Scouts. The opportunity to serve the Sugar Man—the massive creature who delights in delicious sugar cane and magnanimously rules over the swamp—is an honor, and also a big responsibility, since the rest of the swamp critters rely heavily on the intel of these hardworking Scouts.
Twelve-year-old Chap Brayburn is not a member of any such organization. But he loves the swamp something fierce, and he’ll do anything to help protect it.
And help is surely needed, because world-class alligator wrestler Jaeger Stitch wants to turn Sugar Man swamp into an Alligator World Wrestling Arena and Theme Park, and the troubles don’t end there. There is also a gang of wild feral hogs on the march, headed straight toward them all.
The Scouts are ready. All they have to do is wake up the Sugar Man. Problem is, no one’s been able to wake that fellow up in a decade or four…
Newbery Honoree and National Book Award finalist Kathi Appelt’s story of care and conservation has received five starred reviews, was selected as a National Book Award finalist, and is funny as all get out and ripe for reading aloud.
Customer Reviews
Most helpful customer reviews
23 of 23 people found the following review helpful.
Richie's Picks: THE TRUE BLUE SCOUTS OF SUGAR MAN SWAMP
By N. S.
Here's why THE TRUE BLUE SCOUTS OF SUGAR MAN SWAMP has made me a happy camper and now becomes my favorite book of this year:It is LMAO funny. There is smart humor and goofy humor and physical humor and hyperbole and hysterical twists and turns of phrase.It is filled with great language, words like aught, denizen, procyonid, falderal, Alouicious, extant, peccaries, ruminations, milieu, cryptid, and certitude.It is a noisy book, crafted with a wealth of onomatopoeia that is both powerfully descriptive and really entertaining.There are pirates and rowdy sea chanteys and canebrake rattlesnakes (Crotalus horridus giganticus) and lullabies.There are three really important, somewhat interrelated, environmental issues.There is a wonderful twelve year-old boy character, Chaparral Brayburn, who has to deal both with the bad guys and with those raucous raccoon brothers.There is an amazing development of interconnections between a sixteenth century conquistador, a bunch of evil hogs, and a rusted-out, somewhat magical car."His instinct was to head for the hills, but are there any hills in the swamp? We think you can answer that question all by yourself. Poor Leroy was stuck."This one left me as wired as a great rock concert. I've preordered my finished copy. Now I'm wanting to know where I can get one of the tour tee shirts.
12 of 13 people found the following review helpful.Great book
By Dakota Wolf
I just finished reading "The True Blue Scouts of Sugar Man Swamp." The only good thing about this book being over for me, is I can now tell you how fantastic it is. The author is a wonderful weaver of stories, and she makes a beautiful tapestry from the adventures of our raccoon friends Bingo and J'miah, a sleepy and sweet toothed cryptid named "The Sugar Man" and his slithering sidekick Gertrude, a fine young Homo Sapien named Chap Brayburn, some not so fine Homo Sapiens named Sonny Boy Beaucoup and Jaeger Stitch, some mean - and I mean MEAN - wild boars, a wise and creative DJ, a red star, a pirate, a mom, some fond memories of a beloved and nature loving grandpa, a swamp, an old Polaroid camera, and some delicious pies. Throw in solid writing, short chapters, humor, a satisfying ending, and you are sure to have a winner with the 10-12 year old crowd (and possibly their parents and teachers too).I will end this review with the wise words of KSUG DJ, Coyoteman Jim, "Have a good day and a good idea....Arrrrooooooo!"
7 of 8 people found the following review helpful.
point of view changes and an initially slow moving plot made for a rough start
By Seek Felicity
I placed this book in my fourth grade library hoping to get an opinion from a nine or ten year old to add to my own thoughts. The book was checked out a couple of times and returned with only a chapter or two read. The primary vocalized reason was that it was hard to follow and boring. I can see why my fourth graders felt that way. I started this book no less than four times before I actually started turning pages a little faster to reach the finish.The book itself has cute characters and stories. The two raccoons who are entrusted with protecting the swamp against hogs and a family's race to save the pie business (which uses sugar cane from the same swamp) would be fine conflicts for a kid's book. The problem is that for the age group that I teach, the book is a bit long. My students were confused by the number of characters, had troubles with the point-of-view changes, and did not like the initially slow moving plot. I could relate with each of their complaints.All in all, I enjoyed the author's use of description to create a vivid setting and some of the events and discussions that took place among characters were humorous. I think that editing would have allowed chapters to flow more seamlessly between characters and would have also permitted a focus on the most important plot-important discussions and events.
