A Campfire for Cowboy Billy

( 1 )

Overview

Grab your hats and ride along with Cowboy Billy on his mail run to 44th Street. Follow Billy on his adventurous journey as he weaves through an imaginary landscape where he dodges rustlers on bicycles, sheriffs directing stalled traffic, and chuck-wagon cooks dishing up hot dogs. After a day of riding his stick horse, Splinter, across this imaginary landscape, Billy returns to the rooftop of his apartment to sit beneath the stars and remember Grandpa. Billy's imaginative journey will delight cowboys, cowgirls and...
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More About This Book

Overview

Grab your hats and ride along with Cowboy Billy on his mail run to 44th Street. Follow Billy on his adventurous journey as he weaves through an imaginary landscape where he dodges rustlers on bicycles, sheriffs directing stalled traffic, and chuck-wagon cooks dishing up hot dogs. After a day of riding his stick horse, Splinter, across this imaginary landscape, Billy returns to the rooftop of his apartment to sit beneath the stars and remember Grandpa. Billy's imaginative journey will delight cowboys, cowgirls and tenderfeet of all ages.

After a day of riding his stick horse, Splinter, across an imaginary landscape, Billy returns to the rooftop of his apartment to sit beneath the stars and remember Grandpa.

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Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly
In Ulmer's sincere, rather sentimental debut children's book, an imaginative boy remembers his beloved late grandfather as he goes about his day. Bent on delivering a letter he's written, Billy rides his stick horse through the city streets, pretending he's on a pony-express run. As he makes his way through canyons composed of skyscrapers and Badlands a giant park complete with "Big Kid Bandits", his thoughts intermittently turn to his grandfather. He recalls watching the stars with the kind man, who told Billy, "Stars are the warm, twinkling campfires of special souls telling someone on earth how much they still love them." And it's his grandfather's advice that prompts Billy to hide from the Bandits menacing older boys on bikes. Back at home, the young cowboy heads for the roof, where he spies Grandfather's "campfire" and thanks him for the "trick." Spengler How Jackrabbit Got His Very Long Ears adds a good passel of whimsy with stylized gouache art, and offers some playfully skewed perspectives e.g., the "canyon" in southwestern shades of pine and terra-cotta towering above Billy as a car with a longhorns hood ornament crowds the foreground as well as diverting extras like a reappearing mouse, dressed in either cowboy or Indian garb. Though the juxtaposition of plot and memories make for a rather bumpy ride and the letter's recipient goes unknown, this story may well spark a reassuring adult-child dialogue about the death of a loved one. Ages 5-8. Sept.
Children's Literature - Carolyn Mott Ford
In the canyons of the city Billy climbs astride his faithful stick horse, Splinter, and sets off on a mail run to 44th Street. Billy's grandfather from Arizona had given Billy his cowboy outfit. Once, when Grandpa came for a visit, they had gone up to the roof of the apartment building and gazed at the stars. Grandpa told Billy, "The Indians have a legend that says the stars are the campfires of those who have died and moved into the next world to dwell with the Great Spirit. Stars are the warm, twinkling campfires of special souls telling someone on earth how much they love them." One of the stars is now a campfire for Grandpa. This imaginative and boldly illustrated book approaches the issue of mortality in a welcome, light-handed manner. Billy's trip to the mailbox is envisioned as a cowboy adventure. The hot dog stand on the corner is a chuck wagon and the tough kids in the park are bandits in the badlands. Billy makes his mail run safely by following advice Grandpa had given him. He then goes up on the roof to whisper a thank you to Grandpa's campfire.
School Library Journal
K-Gr 2Influenced by the cowboy stories of his Grandpa who has recently died, Billy rides an imaginary pony express through the streets and parks of his New York City neighborhood. The author combines old western and modern urban descriptions in her text and includes sympathetic adults who support Billy's fantasy. Gouache illustrations in bold colors and with cockeyed perspectives enhance the fantasy. When the boy stops for the breakdown of a wagon train or when he outsmarts a gang of bandits, the pictures show a truck with a flat tire or tough older boys whizzing by on bicycles. Billy's grandfather has told him an old legend in which stars are the campfires of people who have died. When the child's adventure is over, he climbs to the roof of his building to say good night to his Grandpa's campfire, assuring young readers that the man lives on in his grandson's memories. This is a useful addition to collections in which cowboy fantasies such as Chris Van Allsburg's Bad Day at Riverbend Houghton, 1995 are popular or where stories about dealing with the death of a beloved relative are needed.Barbara Chatton, College of Education, University of Wyoming, Laramie
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Product Details

  • ISBN-13: 9781589796058
  • Publisher: Taylor Trade Publishing
  • Publication date: 3/16/2011
  • Edition description: Reprint
  • Pages: 32
  • Sales rank: 1,266,204
  • Product dimensions: 7.70 (w) x 11.70 (h) x 0.20 (d)

Meet the Author

Wendy K. Ulmer, formerly a school music and English teacher, is a writer and quilt shop owner. Her other children's books include A Isn't for Fox: An Isn't Alphabet, and Zero, Zilch, Nada: Counting to None. She lives in Arrowsic, Maine. Kenneth J. Spengler's illustrations can be found on anything from posters to billboards, mystery-book covers to children's books, including How Jackrabbit Got His Very Long Ears. He lives in Sacramento, California.
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Sort by: Showing 1 Customer Review

  • Anonymous

    Posted June 14, 2000

    A WONDERFUL TRIBUTE

    I have purchased many copies of this book to share with my friends. It provides a wonderful opening to talk lightly with children about mortality and the importance of keeping a relationship, even after death. Great story and illustrations.

    1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

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