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THE TRUE WEST

Name: THE TRUE WEST
Author: Mifflin Lowe
ISBN: 978-1-7336335-1-2

REAL STORIES ABOUT BLACK COWBOYS, WOMEN SHARPSHOOTERS, NATIVE AMERICAN RODEO STARS, PIONEERING VAQUEROS, CELEBRITY SHOWMEN, AND THE UNSUNG EXPLORERS, BUILDERS, AND HEROES WHO SHAPED THE AMERICAN WEST

by Mifflin Lowe ; illustrated by William Luong ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 2, 2020

A history that excels at admiration but fails at overall accuracy.

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Women and men on horseback fought, explored, performed in rodeos, enforced laws, and helped to shape the American West.

In his author’s note, Lowe states that he intends to celebrate “a shared history of the American West,” which was “a melting pot every bit as much as the cities of the East Coast.” In spite of their suffering, and dealing with “unbelievable conditions and national scorn,” Native Americans, African Americans, Chinese Americans, and Latinx people “helped create the country that we live in today.” What follows are capsule entries on cowboys and cowgirls from the previously mentioned backgrounds. Each is accompanied by a colorful, full-page portrait of the person, often with a big smile. Also included are pages on dress, Chinese railroad workers, and buffalo soldiers. The entry for Levi Strauss does not mention his Judaism, but it is followed by a two-page spread on Jews. The information on the Chinese railroad workers states that they “were genuine heroes who helped make this country a better place to live,” but this statement lacks information on and sensitivity to Indigenous peoples, and there is no mention of the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882. Also, the article on rodeo star Fox Hastings tells readers that she was not only a “true beauty,” but also a “genuine daredevil”—leaving them to ponder if the two are otherwise mutually exclusive.

A history that excels at admiration but fails at overall accuracy. (further reading) (Nonfiction. 9-12)

Pub Date: June 2, 2020

ISBN: 978-1-7336335-1-2

Page Count: 48

Publisher: Bushel & Peck Books

Review Posted Online: March 24, 2020

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2020

Categories:

CHILDREN'S BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR | CHILDREN'S HISTORY

- BOOK REVIEW
DAD
by Mifflin Lowe ; illustrated by Dani Torrent

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GHOST TOWNS OF THE AMERICAN WEST

by Raymond Bial ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 1, 2001

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Bial (A Handful of Dirt, p. 299, etc.) conjures up ghostly images of the Wild West with atmospheric photos of weathered clapboard and a tally of evocative names: Tombstone, Deadwood, Goldfield, Progress, Calamity Jane, Wild Bill Hickock, the OK Corral. Tracing the life cycle of the estimated 30,000 ghost towns (nearly 1300 in Utah alone), he captures some echo of their bustling, rough-and-tumble past with passages from contemporary observers like Mark Twain: “If a man wanted a fight on his hands without any annoying delay, all he had to do was appear in public in a white shirt or stove-pipe hat, and he would be accommodated.” Among shots of run-down mining works, dusty, deserted streets, and dark eaves silhouetted against evening skies, Bial intersperses 19th-century photos and prints for contrast, plus an occasional portrait of a grizzled modern resident. He suggests another sort of resident too: “At night that plaintive hoo-hoo may be an owl nesting in a nearby saguaro cactus—or the moaning of a restless ghost up in the graveyard.” Children seeking a sense of this partly mythic time and place in American history, or just a delicious shiver, will linger over his tribute. (bibliography) (Nonfiction. 9-11)

Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2001

ISBN: 0-618-06557-1

Page Count: 48

Publisher: Houghton Mifflin

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2001

Categories:

CHILDREN'S HISTORY

- BOOK REVIEW
ELLIS ISLAND
by Raymond Bial

- BOOK REVIEW
THE SUPER SOYBEAN
by Raymond Bial

- BOOK REVIEW
WHERE WASHINGTON WALKED
by Raymond Bial

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THANKSGIVING

THE TRUE STORY

by Penny Colman ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 1, 2008

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After surveying “competing claims” for the first Thanksgiving from 1541 on, in Texas, Florida, Maine, Virginia and Massachusetts, Colman decides in favor of the 1621 event with the English colonists and Wampanoag as the first “because the 1621 event was more like the Thanksgiving that we celebrate today.” She demonstrates, however, that the “Pilgrim and Indian” story is really not the antecedent of Thanksgiving as we celebrate it today. Rather, two very old traditions—harvest festivals and days of thanksgiving for special events—were the origin, and this interesting volume traces how the custom of proclaiming a general day of thanksgiving took hold. Yet, since many Thanksgiving celebrations in towns and schools are still rooted in the “Pilgrim and Indian” story, which the author calls “true and important,” but which many Native Americans find objectionable, a more in-depth discussion of it is warranted here. The solid bibliography does include some fine resources, such as 1621: A New Look at Thanksgiving (2001) by Catherine O’Neill Grace and Margaret M. Bruchac. (author’s note, chronology, index) (Nonfiction. 8-12)