Cute, funny, sassy and smart story, and brilliant illustrations to boot. Perfect. ( )

This was my favorite book as a child. I checked it out from the library and I still remember my mother reading it to me. I loved everything about this book. The illustrations are rich and beautiful. The story is engaging and entertaining. Liza Lou is smart as a whip! I wanted to be just like her, fearless! I bought this book recently to read with my son. He enjoyed Liza Lou's adventures and how she outsmarts the swamp creatures in the story. ( )

When Liza Lou's mother dispatches her to her Gramma's house with some sweet potatoes, she warns her to be careful, in crossing the Yeller Belly Swamp - home to good-for-nothing swamp haunts, a wicked swamp witch, the slithery gobblygook, and a soul-stealing swamp devil. But our intrepid young heroine has a trick or two up her sleeve, something those nasty swamp monsters discover, as she crisscrosses their territory in the course of her errands...

First published in 1976 (the year I was born), this delightful picture-book from the prolific Mercer Mayer - creator of the Little Critter books, as well as illustrator of many fairy-tale retellings - would have been available in my childhood, and I regret that I did not encounter it then! I would have loved it - I love it now! Liza Lou is a clever and resourceful heroine, and I think readers - young and old, boy and girl - will take her adventures to heart. Mayer's illustrations are adorable, both realistic and cute (I loved Liza Lou's little opossum companion!), and add to the sense of fun.

I was a little confused by the inclusion of this title in a folktale group-read, over in the Picture-Book Club to which I belong, but I guess that the inclusion of so many folkloric elements - outwitting the devil is always a classic theme, and the gobblygook under the bridge could be read as a troll - make it a sort of fractured fairy-tale. In any case: whatever the genre, the story and art are top-notch! Highly recommended to all! ( )

Originally published in 1976. I read this book to my son when he was little "countless" times. I loved camping it up with the "yeller belly swamp" accent, and he loved listening to it. Mercer Meyer never talks down to kids. Liza Lou is smart as a whip and figures things out. A wonderful "read to me" book! ( )

In this fiction fantasy Liza Lou's mother asks her to bring several different things to different relatives. Each trip requires her to go through the Yeller Belly Swamp where each time she comes across a haunt, a witch, a gobblygook, and the swamp devil. Liza Lou manages to outwit all the monsters and they are never seen again in the Yeller Belly Swamp.