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Summary
Summary
For his birthday, Roy's friends give him a saddle and some very specific instructions:1. Find a horse. 2. Enjoy the ride!Roy has never met a horse, but he's game to try: A snake tells him to look for a creature withlegs. A crab has six legs, but he's too unfriendly to be a horse. A friendly chameleon smiles atRoy, but horses don't change colour....What's a horseless cowboy to do?This hilarious picture book perfectly demonstrates the process by which children (and scientists!)understand our world--and the silliness that will make them laugh out loud.
Author Notes
Andy Rash was born on a mountain top in Tennessee and raised in the small polymer town of Kingsport, where all green plastic soda bottles come from. He earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Savannah College of Art and Design during a rather rocky period in that school's history, and a Masters of Fine Art at the School of Visual Arts in New York while things seemed to be going relatively smoothly. Since graduating, Andy has been a freelance illustrator, working for many national magazines and newspapers. He has also taught illustration at the School of Visual Arts.
In addition, Andy finds himself at the beginning of a remarkable career in children's books. His first picture book, The Robots Are Coming, an American Bookseller Pick of the Lists, was published by Arthur A. Levine Books / Scholastic. He also illustrated Daniel Pinkwater's Fat Camp Commandos and Fat Camp Commandos Go West, and his second picture book, Agent A to Agent Z for Arthur A. Levine Books / Scholastic.
Reviews (3)
School Library Journal Review
PreS-Gr 2-As author/illustrator Andy Rash points out, anything can happen in a picture book (Arthur A. Levine Bks., 2009) about a cowboy who doesn't know what a horse is. When cowboy Roy gets a saddle for his birthday, with instructions to find a horse and enjoy the ride, he begins his search, asking each creature he meets, "Are you a horse?" Everything he meets, from a squeaky wagon to a cactus to a crabby crab to a man-eating lion adds a bit of information to his picture of a horse. Each of the animals that Roy meets has the quality revealed in the previous encounter plus a unique characteristic so he can use deductive reasoning to identify a horse. At last, he identifies a real horse, and enjoys a very odd horsey ride. While Rash admits in the Conversation with the Author section that it is implausible for a cowboy in the West to meet crabs, zebras, and many of the other creatures that Roy encounters, this absurdity only adds to the humor of the tale. Dave Calabrese's narration gives each animal a distinct personality, from snake's hissing response, to sloth's slow, careful reply, to lion's brash roar. A read-along version with captions is optional. Rash's bright gouache and India ink cartoon illustrations, numerous gags and puns, and the general silliness of the story present a very effective lesson in critical thinking that will be enjoyed again and again.-MaryAnn Karre, Horace Mann Elementary School, Binghamton, NY (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Horn Book Review
(Preschool, Primary) Roy is one confused cowpoke. His friends give him a saddle for his birthday, but he doesn't know what it is. "Luckily, it came with instructions: 1. Find a horse 2. Enjoy the ride." Except Roy doesn't know what a horse is, either. Thus begins Roy's cheery absurdist trek through the desert, trying to fulfill instruction number one by interviewing likely candidates a la P. D. Eastman's Are You My Mother?. Engaging cartoon illustrations, rendered in a toasty warm palette, show that Roy looks the part of a born-and-bred buckaroo, with his ten-gallon hat, boots, and Texas-themed belt buckle. But his comic level of ignorance shines bright as the Western sun when he approaches his first interview subject, a rusty red wagon. "'Are you a horse?' he asked. 'Nope, I'm an old wagon,' said the wagon. 'A horse is a living thing.'" A talking cactus, snake, crab, chameleon, and others all give him clues until he finally finds his steed and moves on to instruction number two in a hilarious closing scene that proves Roy's equestrian education still has a ways to go. From HORN BOOK, (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Booklist Review
When cowboy Roy is given a saddle for his birthday, he can't wait to try it out. Right after he figures out what it's for. Luckily, it comes with instructions ( 1. Find a horse. 2. Enjoy the ride ), but unluckily, Roy doesn't know what a horse is. So he saunters about asking each creature he meets if it's a horse. They all tell him why they're not: horses have legs, explains the snake; a horse is friendly, explains the many-legged crab; a horse can't change colors, says the friendly chameleon. Roy is just about out of questions when he finally finds something that fits all the requirements, and a horse it turns out to be. The western-styled gouache art is packed with colors and peppered with lighthearted jokes. Much of the visual fun comes from the way each animal has the characteristic Roy has just learned about from the previous encounter, while the text effectively uses negation to keep him looking. Kids will enjoy knowing more than the hapless Roy with the final page showing an extremely unexpected horsy ride.--Chipman, Ian Copyright 2009 Booklist