Paying handsome tribute to the doughty crew that brought the rule of law to some of the wildest parts of the Wild West, Spradlin profiles such prominent Rangers as William A.A. “Big Foot” Wallace and Captain Leander McNelly. He also highlights achievements from the battle of the Alamo to the capture of John Wesley Hardin and the ambush of Bonnie and Clyde. A sense of the wide-open spaces they patrolled comes through clearly in Munro’s outdoorsy scenes. Mustachioed and well-armed Rangers face Comanche raiders, Mexican soldiers, bands of desperados and oil boomtown rowdies in a variety of settings with the same air of calm competence. Though the modern Rangers get a nod at the end, the focus here is really on their first century of existence (they were founded in 1823)—still, they seldom get their due in titles for younger readers, and this makes the best short introduction since Stephen Hardin’s Texas Rangers (1991). (Picture book/nonfiction. 7-9)
