Western Themed Children's Books, Part II

Yesterday I shared a few western themed children's picture books with you and today I'm back to share some additional titles that landed in our library book bag this past week. As I mentioned, we're currently doing a western-themed unit study and so we've been on the prowl for good cowpoke reads. Here are a few more that we found.



Nell Nugget and the Cow Caper, by Judith Ross Enderle and Stephanie Gordon Tessler is the story about a brave cowgirl named Nell.

Nell Nugget lives on the Bar None Ranch, way out west, with her horse, Pay Dirt and her little dog, Dust. She owns forty-nine cows and cares for them all by herself. One day she discovers that one of her cows is missing! Then she discovers that the cow is not just missing - it has been stolen by Nasty Galoot, the "worst rustlin' robber in the West, the baddest bad man anywhere."

Nell loves her cattle though and she is braver than brave. She rescues her cow and catches the baddest bad man, leaving him in quite the predicament where the sheriff can take over. Cute story. I like this one.



I've talked about the Billy and Blaze series by C.W. Anderson before so I'll not say much more this go around. If you click on that link it'll take you to my post wherein I highlighted the series.

We picked up the first title, Billy and Blaze, again for a re-read.



I Want To Be A Cowboy is another non-fiction read that was a recommended reading source in the thematic unit book which we are using. I was glad to find a copy at our local library! This book is perfect for pre-school aged kids. It uses real-life photographs of cowboys in action and provides about 4-5 sentences of information per page spread. It's a nice beginners introduction to the world of cowboys and I'm glad to have found it to use in our studies!



Now, if you are going to talk about the west you have to add in some songs to go along with it, right? Check out She'll Be Coming 'Round the Mountain by Jonathan Emmett and Deborah Allwright.

We are introduced to a cactus who is strumming a guitar and singing this familiar tune. On each page you see little animals, such as prairie dogs and owls, etc., strumming banjos and singing along. The only difference in this version is that the "she" that is coming 'round the mountain is a little girl in pigtail braids wearing pink pajamas and who dances across the rooftops. It's rather a silly little cowgirl song book that I think is rather cute and creative. I think her hat might be taller than she is.

And what is the western prairie without a discussion of prairie dogs?



Prairie Dogs, by Emery Bernhard and illustrated by Durga Bernhard is a nice non-fiction book full of interesting facts about the prairie dog. Although the book opens in story fashion, it is more factual in its presentation, giving out all kinds of information about this curious animals. As you read along this book you also bump into various other prairie animals such as the bison, the black-footed ferret and the prairie rattlesnake.

This book is rather long for a toddler to read, but I think it would be good for ages 5 and up. We're going to give it a go (even at age 4) because I think Bookworm1 can handle it. We'll just glean what we can and call it good.

We read this book last week and Bookworm1 LOVED it! Every single little bit of it! We learned a lot and he has a new fascination with prairie dogs!

A more simple read though might be Peeking Prairie Dogs which is a short 29-page book with full colored photographs and averages three sentences per page spread. I picked this one up as well because I think it will hold both of my boys' attention.



So there you have it, folks. I might pop back in a time or two with more western themed books as we move along but this is where we're starting off. Do you have any titles along these themes that you really like and would recommend to myself and others? Leave me a note and I'll look it up!

In the meantime, happy reading!