Through the Looking Glass Children's Book Reviews
Cowboy Christmas
Illustrator: John Manders
Picture Book
For ages 6 to 8
Random House, 2012 ISBN: 978-0375869853
Christmas is in three days’ time, and three cowboys out on the range are feeling mighty blue. Dwight, Darryl and Dub are wishing that they were not stuck with a bunch of cows in a place where “Santy Claus” will never be able to find them.
Around the campfire that night Dwight tells his comrades about how his father used to cut down an evergreen tree every year and how they decorated the tree with popcorn and icicles. Inspired by the story, the cowhands try to have a Christmas tree of their own on the range, but somehow a cactus decorated with hay and cans of corn doesn’t look quite right. In fact it looks “Downright ugly.”
The next evening the unhappy cowhands once again sit around the camp fire and this time Darryl tells his two friends about one of his favorite childhood Christmas traditions. Every Christmas Darryl’s grandmother would make cookies that had sticky frosting and sprinkles on them. The cowhands’ cook, Cookie, suggests that they try to make cookies. Unfortunately, the cowhands’ cookies are quite dreadful, and once again they go to bed feeling miserable. Perhaps they just have to reconcile themselves to having a non-Christmas.
In this amusing story we see how three cowboys discover that Christmas can come to anyone, even to people who are in the middle of nowhere. The tale is often funny, the three main characters are delightful, and the ending is perfect.
