PECOS BILL

A wonderful welcome back to Pecos Bill! This exuberant introduction to the tall-tale Texas superhero will delight picture-book age children and older readers alike. Running naked and baying at the moon, Bill is being raised by coyotes. He cavorts with bighorn sheep and wrestles a giant rattlesnake until he squeezes out every drop of venom, ""leaving it skinny as a rope and mild as a goldfish."" He also tackles a critter who's part grizzly, part puma, part gorilla, and part tarantula, revolutionizes ranching, and acquires a feisty wife, Slewfoot Sue. The illustrations here are Kellogg at his best, finely detailed, full of humor and action yet including scenes of real beauty, especially in some of the Western panoramas. All in all, a splendid, rambunctious celebration of Pecos Bill and the wild and woolly West he tamed. Bravo!