Buster the dog is NOT HAPPY that Brown Shoes is taking off for a weekend’s R&R and leaving him at Cowboy Camp in the care of Red Boots. A day later, though, after painting a “Wanted” poster (of his friend Betty the white kitten, who gets to stay with Mrs. Pink Slippers), learning how to catch a ball, helping to build a fire under a kettle of beans and bacon and, with fellow canine campers, singing cowboy songs, Buster’s attitude has done a complete 180. Fleming’s masterly control of her paper-pulp medium shows itself in the poster’s lettered header, in the fine patterns of the neckerchiefs worn by all the campers and particularly in Buster’s wonderfully expressive body language. The colors really pop, too. Young tenderfeet anxious about sleepover camp will be reassured by Buster’s experience; they will also appreciate the cowpoke glossary (“Chow. Food.”) on the back cover. (Picture book. 4-8)
