Wow! eBook
Bronco Busters
Author(s): Alison Cragin Herzig (Author)
- Publisher: Putnam Juvenile
- Publication Date: September 28, 1998
- Language: English
- Print length: 32 pages
- ISBN-10: 0399229175
- ISBN-13: 9780399229176
Book Description
Three bronco busters–Slim, Jim, and Grimsley–are the biggest, baddest cowboys in the West, but they struggle to tame a wily and wild black pony that fights back with tricks of its own.
Editorial Reviews
From School Library Journal
Kindergarten-Grade 4-A black pony defies the bronco-busting skills of three of the contemporary West’s finest buckaroos and is ultimately tamed by a young cowboy with a gentle voice and a kind touch. Slim, Jim, and Grimsley employ the standard will-breaking techniques of spurring, team roping, hobbling, snubbing (tying a horse nose to post), and general whooping and hollering. Each man takes his turn with the recalcitrant horse on successive days and is duly humbled by being thrown sky high. Throughout this ordeal the boy, for the most part ignored by the haughty trio, sits on the corral railing, quietly watching. At night, he visits the pony, stroking its head, sharing his smells, and telling his equine friend wistful stories about the wilderness outside the corral. He slowly, but surely, befriends the pony, earning a trust his fellow horsemen will never understand. Root’s pen-and-watercolor vignettes, bordered by jalape?os, cacti, and other desert flora, are, by turns, animated or subdued, caricatures or graceful portraits, with mood swings accented by desert-brown days or prairie-blue nights. A simple story with a lyrical ending that will touch the hearts of readers.
John Sigwald, Unger Memorial Library, Plainview, TX
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
John Sigwald, Unger Memorial Library, Plainview, TX
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
Ages 4^-8. Slim, Jim, and Grimsley are the roughest, toughest broncobusters in the whole wide West. One day, they meet a small cowboy sitting on a corral fence watching a black pony. “Stand aside, Sonny,” the big guys advise, but none of the three succeed in taming the horse. After the bronco busters bow out in embarrassment, the young cowhand (who has spent his free time petting, talking softly, feeding, and watering the pony) steps forward, saddles it, and rides off into the high blue mountains. Root’s colorful paintings include both oval-shaped scenes set inside embossed, leatherlike frames and smaller inset drawings; most emphasize and exaggerate the pony’s actions. A good choice for story hour sharing, this should be popular with young cowpokes everywhere. Kay Weisman
