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Summary
Summary
Slim, Jim, and, Grimsley are the biggest, baddest bronco busters in the whole wide West. There's not a horse they can't tame...until they meet up with one small cowboy and a black pony.
The bronco busters try every trick in their book, but the pony fights back with tricks of his own.. Day after day, the small cowboy watches and waits for dark. Then he'll get his chance. Can he find a way to turn this fierce Bronco into a friend.
Reviews (4)
School Library Journal Review
K-Gr 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 jalapeños, 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 (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
By day, a trio of low-down bronco busters ("Slim was rough, Jim was tough, and Grimsley was bowlegged") try every dirty trick in the book to tame a wild pony, without success. By night, a small young cowboy creeps into the corral and takes a different tack, talking softly, gently caring for and feeding the small horseÄand even playing the harmonica for him. In the end, the three tough cowpokes give up ("he's a real outlaw") and mosey off into the sunset in their souped-up monster truck (complete with horseshoe-studded tires), leaving behind the boy and the pony who, thanks to the child's light touch, is now tame as a kitten. Herzig's (Sam and the Moon Queen) tidily packaged tale is larded with humor and colorful descriptions ("spikey spurs as big as pinwheels"), and she deftly etches the contrast between the two bronco-busting styles in language that by turn swaggers across the pages and settles into more tranquil tones for the nighttime training sessions. Root's (Junk Pile!) drawings are equally adroit; snapshots of the bronco-busting business in a dusty Wild West palette fairly burst out of their oval frames, and her mean cowpokes, who look like they'd be equally at home on horses or Harley Davidsons, are hilarious. A rootin'-tootin' good ride from start to finish. Ages 4-8. (Sept.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Horn Book Review
In this oft-told tale, a little cowboy gentles and rides a bronco after the pony is pronounced too wild, wily, and mean by three confident bronco busters. The pictures of the horse, at his best and worst moments, outshine the text and give readers both rodeo action and an intimate glimpse of the relationship between the boy and his horse. From HORN BOOK Spring 1999, (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Booklist Review
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