WAZA WINS AT WINDY GULCH

Coerr mixes historical fact and frontier embellishment in her story of Waza, one of the camels shipped here in the 1850s for use as an Army pack animal. After a scene-setting author's note, we meet Dirty Shirt Dan, who tries to ""think of a way to make those camels look bad. . . or the army won't need our mules anymore."" His first plot backfires when he has to round up the cattle he stampeded with Waza's ""whiffy camel smell,"" his second when he shoos her into the town of Windy Gulch hoping for a riot, only to see her unexpected appearance foil a bank robbery. Together, McCaffery's sun-baked, heat-wavy paintings and Dirty Shirt Dan's cocky overplaying make a mildly entertaining campfire tale.