WILL ROGERS

PLB 0-8027-8682-0 Will Rogers’s legend may have faded a bit over time, so Dadey toils to bring him back into the young public’s eye, mixing—just as she did in Shooting Star (1997)—real episodes with wildly preposterous events to amplify his persona. It’s true that he was the all-American, kind-hearted, spirit-lifting, lasso-tossing gentleman-cowboy; diminished in the hubbub here is his common decency, love for children, and gift for simple acts of kindness—Rogers was an artist when it came to modesty and gestures without fanfare. Dadey irons her story out in an afterword, separating the truth from the tall tale. Goto’s illustrations are great, beefy, apple-polished productions in keeping with the tone of the story, usually catching a grinning Rogers from below to give him the look of a colossus. If even a smidgen of the truth of Rogers’s goodness comes through, Dadey’s and Goto’s efforts have not been in vain. (Picture book. 5-8)