Sunshine Rider - Hardcover

Hardman, Ric Lynden

3.76

42 ratings by Goodreads

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0385325436 ISBN 13: 9780385325431

Publisher: Delacorte Books for Young Readers, 1998

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The year: 1881. The place: Odessa, Texas. Seventeen-year-old Wylie Jackson lands a job as assistant cook on what will be his first cattle drive. Before he departs, Wylie's friend Alice charges him with taking her pet cattalo, Roselle, to her aunt in Enid, Oklahoma. Alice's father bred a longhorn cow with a buffalo and Roselle was the result: a gangly, gawky animal trained to count with her hooves and sit on her haunches.

Only days into the drive, a disastrous stampede occurs. Fearing he was the cause, Wylie abandons the drive and sets off for Enid, riding a stolen horse with Roselle in tow. Now a wanted man, he lives in constant fear of capture. Along his journey, he encounters Tim-oo-leh the medicine man, Majul Majul the electric belt salesman, Carl Merkle, infamous thief and killer, and other friendly, dastardly, and suspicious types. Wylie's story is a Western adventure, a search for self, and a sensitive portrayal of a friendship between a young man and his cattalo. It is a saga destined to charm man and beast alike.

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Review:

Yip yip yeehaw! Saddle up your favorite reading chair and settle down to hear this rowdy tale about Wylie Jackson (a teenager in need of a good adventure), his pet cattalo (that's a cross between a longhorn cow and a buffalo, in case you were wondering), and the ravine of ruckus they carve out in the wild wild West of the late 1800s. Wylie always has felt stifled in Odessa, Texas, so he whoops and hollers when he's offered the chance to join a real cattle drive to Wichita. The only barbs? His post will be at the chuck wagon, spooning up chow for the hungry cattle drovers, and he's been charged with watching a bovine rascal named Roselle, a cattalo with a heart of gold who sits, rolls over, and can count with her hoofs. Think they'll be traveling in a straight line to Wichita? Well, hold your thoughts right there, pardners--bet you never realized how the West got so wild. Hang on tight to the reigns because this will be one heck of a bumpy (and vegetarian) ride.

From the Publisher:

The wild, wild West comes alive in this historical, comical adventure about a young man and his pet cattalo!

*"...a delightful and laugh-out-loud funny sum of its disparate parts."
--Booklist, starred review

"...it is hard not to like this goofy, amiable food-loving Western..."
--Publishers Weekly

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