Real Cowboys

by Kate Hoefler, Jonathan Bean (Illustrator)

Overview

In Kate Hoefler’s realistic and poetic picture book debut about the wide open West, the myth of rowdy, rough-riding cowboys and cowgirls is remade. A timely and multifaceted portrayal reveals a lifestyle that is as diverse as it contrary to what we've come to expect.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780544148925
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	10/04/2016
Pages:	32
Sales rank:	335,886
Product dimensions:	9.10(w) x 11.20(h) x 0.40(d)
Lexile:	AD640L (what's this?)
Age Range:	4 - 7 Years

About the Author

Kate Hoefler received her MFA in Poetry from the University of Michigan, where she studied as a Colby fellow. She has taught writing courses at the University of Michigan, as well as at Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee.

Jonathan Bean's illustrations and writings have received widespread recognition. He has won the Boston Globe–Horn Book Award twice, for At Night and Building Our House.  

Editorial Reviews

★ 08/22/2016
Writing in prose with the lilt and plainspoken poetry of a classic cowboy song, debut author Hoefler makes a winning case that those who are home on the range are self-aware, empathic, conscientious, “as many different colors as the earth,” and include “girls, too.” Hoefler’s text seamlessly blends the workaday with a sense of wonder. “Real cowboys are good listeners,” she writes in one such passage. “They’re always listening to their trail boss and to the other cowhands. Sometimes they listen for trucks, and wolves, and rushing water. And sometimes they just listen to the big wide world and its grass song.” Bean (This Is My Home, This Is My School) beautifully echoes the allusive, musical quality of the text while nodding to the archetypes of the Old West. Working in layers of stenciled four-color imagery, he portrays steers mottled like fine marble, the blinding fury of a dust storm, and an endless night sky of sparkling stars. It may well persuade readers to trade their ninja outfits for chaps, bandanas, and 10-gallon hats. Ages 4–7. Illustrator’s agent: Elizabeth Harding, Curtis Brown. (Oct.)

Publishers Weekly

School Library Journal’s Fuse#8 Best of 2016 * "...a fresh, multidimensional glimpse at those who make their home on the range." —School Library Journal, STARRED review * "[Real Cowboys] may well persuade readers to trade their ninja outfits for chaps, bandanas, and 10-gallon hats." —Publishers Weekly, STARRED review "...a lovely, quiet book about the personality traits that come in handy when the going gets tough." —Booklist "An eloquent response to anyone with a simplistic picture of the cowboy as a rough, tough working man and nothing else." —Kirkus "Young cowpokes will appreciate the seriousness given to their passion..." —Horn Book "The illustrations are vibrant, somewhat abstract, and reminiscent of a vintage children’s book. Readers will be delighted to learn about the many tasks a cowboy goes through in a day because the illustrations give a colorful portrayal of their livelihood." —School Library Connection —

From the Publisher

★ 09/01/2016
PreS-Gr 3—Hoefler takes readers into the daily lives of cowboys. Almost every page turn reveals a different personality trait or behavior, from being "quiet in the morning, careful not to wake the people…in the hollow" to being "strong, and tough, and homesick at the same time." Her portrayal shows skilled and sensitive caretakers who sing to calm the cattle or help them sleep. Always alert to danger and environmental cues, they communicate with other cowhands and their dogs to try to keep their herds safe and to prevent stampedes. When they lose an animal, "real cowboys cry." Bean employs stylized, hand-stenciled shapes in muted, digitally composed scenes. Various shades of brown, depicting the cattle, soil, and other elements, are worked (along with white) into a controlled palette of turquoise, mustard yellow, and orange-red; these colors appear individually or in combination. The moods range from tense—when a dust storm pelts the fleeing animals—to cheerful, when, in a red-and-white Escher-like cattle crossing, an aspiring cowboy waves from the backseat of a car. The language is lyrical, with one or two sentences per page describing the patience and consideration exhibited by these professionals, who "are as many different colors as the earth" and "are girls, too." VERDICT This subtle, expressionistic view may not hold the attention of children who prefer realistic art or constant action, but it provides a fresh, multidimensional glimpse at those who make their home on the range.—Wendy Lukehart, District of Columbia Public Library

School Library Journal

2016-08-17
An eloquent response to anyone with a simplistic picture of the cowboy as a rough, tough working man and nothing else.Rough, tough, and hardworking they definitely are—but so much more besides: “Their work is to think of others,” writes Hoefler, from neighbors to “the calf stranded on the ridge.” They are gentle, to keep the cattle calm. They know how to listen and to stay safe, and even on a fast horse they “move with the slow rhythm of a herd.” They suffer losses and, echoing the revelation about pirates in Mem Fox’s classic, stereotype-busting Tough Boris, illustrated by Kathryn Brown (1994), “Real cowboys cry.” They take turns, they make art, they dream. More cosmically, “they wonder what’s past the horizon.” And when their work is done, the author concludes, “they find out.” In contrast to his typically bright, cleanly drawn style, Bean illustrates this cowboy paean in a digital stenciling technique that leaves low-contrast layers of shapes—some of these too indistinct to resolve easily. Moreover, though his figures properly diversify when he comes to the text “Real cowboys are as many different colors as the earth. Real cowboys are girls, too,” he rather misses the point by depicting all the cowboys on the other pages, so far as can be told, as generically light-skinned and apparently male. A positively inspirational unpacking of a traditional role model, hobbled but not entirely unhorsed by its illustrations. (Picture book. 6-9)

Kirkus Reviews