A COWBOY NAMED ERNESTINE

Rubel (Wedding Bells for Rotten Ralph, 1999, etc.) takes a piece of Americana and extrapolates a spry tale of a spirited Irish lady in frontier Texas. Ernestine is a mail-order bride beckoned from Ireland to marry Virgil Beetle. Her spirits sink when Virgil turns out to be a filthy rapscallion who lives on a ranch—a stinky, ramshackle place—with his three brothers and sister-in-law Prunella. With the preacher out of town, the wedding is stalled for a week. Meanwhile, nasty Prunella treats Ernestine as the housemaid and makes her sleep in the barn. Ernestine thinks, “I’ve seen neater pigs and more courteous donkeys than this family.” Dressed as a man, Ernestine escapes out the back to wander the prairies. There she is discovered by Texas Teeth, a jovial cowboy with pearly whites. Believing she’s a man named Ernest T., Texas Teeth and his gang teach Ernestine to herd and rope. When her wages aren’t enough to get her back to Ireland, Ernestine signs up for a calf-roping contest to earn the rest, but a nasty trick is played, and she finds herself bull-riding instead. This dastardly deed serves to reveal Ernestine’s mane of red hair and her real gender. Not such a bad thing, it turns out, for the story ends with Ernestine in a wedding dress after all. Rubel’s illustrations tell half the story with a brightly colored palate, rosy-cheeked characters, and intricately detailed surroundings. In fact, sharp-eyed readers will enjoy finding little animals in the scenery and an armadillo on every page. This tale is a treat all the way around. (Picture book. 4-8)