Little Cowgirl Book Club: Holding the Reins

The Little Cowgirl was especially interested in this book -- it follows the lives of 4 modern-day teenaged cowgirls throughout the year: KaDee of Utah & Colorado in summer; Sarah of Montana in fall; Katy of Wyoming in winter and Leslie of new Mexico in Spring. I found it a really fascinating book -- you can find plenty of books and blogs about real-life adults on ranches, but not too much on the younger set. Unfortunately, while it's marked as suitable for elementary school, it ended up being a bit too graphic for a 6-year-old. I think she was also a bit bored with the mundane details of high-school life. Definitely better for older kids, but an interesting read for anyone.

Check it out on Amazon; or find it at your local library!

Little Cowgirl Book Club: Yippee-Yay!

Okay, first off, I just have to get something off my chest here.

Dear World, can we please call for a moratorium on the use of Giddyup? I grant you, it's a pretty cute font, and when it came out almost ten years ago there weren't a lot of choices. But now it is everywhere. Everywhere. Seriously, it's like the comic sans of western fonts. Just. Stop. Thank you.

Okay, I feel better now. This is a pretty nicely done non-fiction picture book, mostly covering the history of the Old West. Lots of information on gear, clothing, cattle drives and so on, presented in a cartoony fashion. The Little Cowgirl didn't like it much though, because while it claims to be a book about cowboys and cowgirls, actually, the first page tells you that there were very few women on the frontier and only a handful of cowgirls, and then we get zero cowgirls until the last two pages of the book, which is the brief "modern times" section. I would still recommend it to any kid interested in the subject -- just as long as they're not a persnickety little cowgirl!

Check it out on Amazon; or find it at your local library!