COWBOY JIM

In Davis’ picture book, an aspiring cowboy has his roping skills put to the test while rounding up a runaway calf.

Jim, a pale-skinned youngster, always wanted to be a cowboy—often wearing a Stetson hat, trying on his dad’s boots, sitting on unhorsed saddles, and pretending to ride. As he grows up on his family’s cattle ranch, he learns how to ride a horse for real, and even how to rope cattle—although this last skill doesn’t come easily. Jim first ropes a tree branch, his dog, and even himself. When one of the calves escapes, he isn’t sure he’ll be able to catch her; still, he and his sister, Jane, ride off to try, and after crossing a river and avoiding a rattlesnake, they find the calf. Davis offers a straightforward third-person narrative, with the typeface cantering across the open skies and grassy fields of Sharma’s illustrations, mostly two-page spreads. The author based the characters and plot on the real-life history of her grandfather, whose appended two-page biography gives the work a timeless feel. Jim’s adventure has fraught moments, but the ranch lifestyle more generally appears laid-back and verdant. Sharma adds variety with subtle background reworkings of flora and fauna and a picture-search challenge. A glossary of cowboy terms rounds out the book.

A serene, sun-drenched foray into Texan ranch life.