I'm raising two young Republicans so imagine my shock when my young 3rd grade son brought home his library book this week "Lu and the Swamp Ghost" written by none other than James Carville~!!! I did a DOUBLE TAKE this morning before I had my first cup of coffee when I saw it laying next to his backpack. Most of the illustrations are just AWFUL and the little kid has this really u-g-l-y high forehead hairline and the story goes on about the Depression and has a variety of swamp critters and mosquitos.
A Carvile autobiography? (He has evolved from the New Orleans swampland - no?)
Lu and the Swamp Ghost
By James Carville with Patricia C. McKissack
Illustrated by David Catrow
Atheneum, $17.95
40 pages, ISBN 0689865600
Ages 4-8
A friend in the swamp
REVIEW BY SAM HOBBS
There's something about Louisiana that just breeds stories, from its swampy terrain to its storied history, from the Old World feel of New Orleans to the plantations and cotton fields. And there's always the Mississippi River for atmosphere. It should come as no surprise then, that a man like James Carville would have a few stories to tell. The Louisiana-born-and-raised Democratic political consultant, best known as Bill Clinton's campaign advisor, television commentator and one-half of a mixed political marriage with Republican consultant Mary Matalin, recounts a childhood tale in Lu and the Swamp Ghost, his first children's book.
The best stories are those handed down, and in the case of Lu, it's a story with origins in something that happened to Carville's mother Lucille during her Depression-era childhood. Lu is a poor girl who doesn't know she's poor; like all children with a loving family, she's rich in all the things that matter. All except oneshe has no friends her own age. One day, while helping her Papa check turkey traps, she meets what may or may not be the dreaded swamp ghost she's heard about. Ghost or not, he's definitely hungry, and Lu finds that in feeding him, she may have found the friend she's been looking for.
Carville's charming story is brought to life with the help of Newbery and Caldecott winner Patricia McKissack, and accompanied by the delightful drawings of political cartoonist and children's illustrator David Catrow. Southern in its origins, but universal in its appeal, Lu and the Swamp Ghost is a funand spookybook about the value of friendship in hard times. Youngsters should love it, whatever the political affiliations of their parents may be.