The Legend of the Jersey Devil
by Trinka Hakes Noble (Author) and Gerald Kelley (Illustrator)
Booktalk: The Pine Barrens region in New Jersey has long been a place of mystery, with its dark pine groves, black swamps, and dank bogs, oftentimes shrouded in mist and fog. Reputed to be haunted by spirits, it’s an unsettling place to be sure. But of all the mysterious happenings and sights to be found in the Pine Barrens, there is none so intriguing as the Jersey Devil. Since its first reported sighting in 1735, local lore has it that a “devil-like” creature with the head of a horse, the wings of a bat, and the hooves of a goat has menaced townspeople, frightened livestock, and caused all manner of trouble over the years. Is the Jersey Devil real?
Snippet:
In a flash of lightning as clap of thunder,
Mother Leeds’s thirteenth child was born…
but it was no ordinary child!
‘Tis said it was a monstrous creature that circled the room,
then flew up the chimney in a puff of smoke and out into the dark night.
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