GIDDY-UP BUCKAROOS!

Two vaqueros are up with the sun for a full day of adventure.

The cowboys are in fact a pair of siblings who don appropriate hats and boots, affix a moustache (on the child in a dress and braids), and gallop off down the porch steps to rob the stagecoach (a newspaper delivery kid on a bike), lasso a cow (a sleeping kitten), and escape the sheriff (mom), who is in hot pursuit. They dine on “roast armadillo” and “rattlesnake stew,” more familiarly known as beans and guacamole. Nighttime finds them back at the bunkhouse (their bedroom), snugly bedded down under a colorful tent. Trent has fashioned a quick-paced tale in which imagined actions are humorously contrasted with backyard reality in Knight’s brightly colored, digitally rendered illustrations. Heads are round and huge in relation to bodies, and eyes are big—all adding to a comic element. There is a sprinkling of Spanish words throughout (translated in a glossary on the endpapers), and the dad (he cooks!) has slightly darker skin than the mom, indicating that this family may be biracial as well as Latino.

Outdoor and indoor fun and games with a Southwestern flavor.