January 2014 - The True Blue Scouts of Sugar Man Swamp by Kathi Appelt - a fun read for the whole family!

“Got to go way, way back into yesterday and the yesterday before that, maybe a million yesterdays, actually more than a million, a gazillion yesterdays, to hear about the Sugar Man.  Got to go back to when the sea had only barely rolled its way south into the Gulf of Mexico and left behind the slow-moving Bayou Tourterelle, which meandered through the middle of a wide, open marsh.

Sitting as it was in the deep southern side of the continent, the marsh had long days of sunshine and plenty of rain, all the right ingredients to give birth to a whole host of species of plants and animals.  And like a tree rising up out of the rich red dirt, soon enough a creature born of the swamp rose up too.” pg 5 The True Blue Scouts of the Sugar Man Swamp

Bingo and J’miah are the newest official scouts of the Sugar Man Swamp, a swamp in east Texas that has been home to their ancestors for years; the swamp has also been home to gators, snakes, possum, various species of birds, mosquitoes, crawdads, plenty of canebrake sugar, the Beaucoup family and of course the Sugar Man himself.  Who are all these characters you ask?  Well, Bingo and J’miah are raccoons; yes that’s right, raccoons, and for generations, their family has been in charge of keeping an eye on the swamp for the Sugar Man, who is of course, a cousin of Sasquatch.  The Beaucoup family has also had a part in keeping an eye on the swamp, for the past 350 years, but that’s only because once upon a time they angered the Sugar Man and he made them promise.  But now that Sonny Boy Beaucoup is in charge, he has other plans, plans that include the World Champion Gator Wrestler of the Northern Hemisphere, Jaeger Stitch, lots of concrete and hopefully lots of money from ticket sales.

But Bingo and J’miah aren’t the only ones looking out for the swamp, twelve year old Chaparral Brayburn, known to his family as Chap, lives in the swamp with his mom, where they run the Paradise Pies Café, making his late grandfather’s famous fried sugar pies.  Unfortunately, now that Sonny Boy has a new plan for the swamp, he’s raising their rent and demanding “a whole boatload of cash, or else.”

Can Bingo, J’miah and Chap save their homes and the swamp they love … and what is that “… rumble, rumble, rumble, rumble …” off in the distance?  Read The True Blue Scouts of Sugar Man Swamp and all your questions will be answered Sports Fans!

Follow this link True Blue Scouts of Sugar Man Swamp activity guide to the author’s web-site where you can print out your very own Official Sugar Man Swamp Scout Information Officer Membership Card, a few fun activities and directions on how to make your own fried sugar pies … because after reading about them for 327 pages, you’re going to want to eat them too!