Elsie Mae Has Something to Say

Gr 4–6—How can one person make a difference in the world? Should they watch, listen, and learn, or shout the truth at the top of their lungs? For Elsie Mae, the youngest in her family, doing "something big and important in the world" is going to involve speaking up. Elsie Mae comes from swamp people, and unlike her parents and siblings, she is most at home deep in the Okefenokee, where her grandparents and uncles pursue a traditional swamper life—hunting, fishing and living off the land and the water—a life that is now threatened by the development plans of a shipping company. As Elsie Mae prepares to spend the summer with her grandparents, she sends a letter to President Theodore Roosevelt, begging him to protect the unique environment of her home. Her wish comes true, with the help of her bible-thumping nuisance of a cousin Henry James, her capable uncles, some reporters, some hog thieves, and a nosy bloodhound named Huck. But will saving the swamp mean losing the swampers' way of life? Cavanagh's sweet and engaging historical fiction style perfectly captures the special quality of life in the Okefenokee, from 'gators to biscuits to good neighbors. Elsie Mae is a strong, complicated heroine, surrounded by complex characters. The novel also does a good job highlighting the complications of federal conservation for those who live in and use a wild place. Cavanagh collapses the time line (the book takes place in 1933, the Okefenokee wasn't protected until 1937), and fictionalizes the order of events, which will frustrate some readers, but an author's note appended to the story makes these choices clear.