Real Cowboys

Starred review from August 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.

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) COPYRIGHT(1) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Starred review from September 1, 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

Copyright 2016 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

January 1, 2017
There's not a howdy to be heard in this hymn to contemporary cowboys, providing a nice contrast to the many jokey books about them. A sentence beginning "real cowboys" introduces each new task or scene ("Real cowboys are safe. They pull their hats low because the sun can burn, and wear chaps so the cacti and brush don't cut them"), and a fair number of life lessons are thus introduced ("Real cowboys are patient" "Real cowboys take turns" "Real cowboys want peace") and saved from smarminess by their concrete grounding in real cowboy tasks. Young cowpokes will appreciate the seriousness given to their passion, an apparent respect shared by Bean's dramatic illustrations, "hand-stenciled shapes and textures layered with the computer and printed in four Pantone colors." With details that verge on the abstract, each page-turn comes as a visual surprise, moving, say, from a double-page spread of a cowboy herding cattle across a highway to a tender close-up of a cowboy rescuing a calf tangled in cacti. A three-spread sequence of a dust storm and stampede is ferociously exciting but ends with a lament for thus-lost cattle and dogs: "Real cowboys cry." The book ends with an existential turn entirely in keeping with the ongoing atmosphere, but those musings about life after death might be lost on young ranch hands. roger sutton

(Copyright 2017 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

September 1, 2016
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)

COPYRIGHT(2016) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.