Black Cowboy Wild Horses

The Bibliography
Lester, Julius. 1998. Black Cowboy Wild Horses. Ill. by Jerry Pinkney. New York: Dial Books. ISBN 0803717973

The Plot
Black cowboy Bob Lemmons wrangles a group of wild horses on his own by becoming a wild horse himself.

The Analysis
The watercolor, gouache and pencil illustrations by Jerry Pinkney show how a cowboy rides on the dusty plains and tracks a group of wild horses. The illustrations are colorful and expressive. Bob the cowboy blends into the nature around him when he chases the wild horses, giving the impression that he has become nature, has become a horse himself. While this is the story of a black cowboy, it could easily be a white cowboy, or a green cowboy. There is nothing to say that this book is only about a black man. The story is more about a man becoming one with his surroundings, becoming a horse to gather a group of wild horses. Any cowboy could do that, even a cowgirl!

I don't think I would share this story during storytime in its entirety because it's very long-winded. It would be good to share with older kids interested in history and cowboys.

The Review
Michael Cart (Booklist, May 1, 1998 (Vol. 94, No. 17))
One of every three cowboys who helped tame the Wild West was either Mexican or black. This is the true story of one of the latter, Bob Lemmons. In language rich with simile and metaphor, Lester's account focuses on the former slave's uncanny tracking abilities as he trails a herd of mustangs as well as his mission to tame the wild horses and lead them back to the corral. Pinkney's earth-colored gouache and watercolor paintings add the look of the Texas plains to Lester's account and capture the energy of the horses as they gallop across sweeping, double-page spreads. Lester and Pinkney's manifest love and respect for the West and cowboys of color, whose contributions have been too long overlooked, distinguish their latest collaboration.

The Connection
To show children that cowboys aren't only white men with big bushy mustaches, I would share this book along with other books about black cowboys like Saddles and Sabers: Black Men in the Old West by LaVere Anderson and The Journal of Joshua Loper: a Black Cowboy by Walter Dean Myers. Children need to see that every person can be anything they want to be and not what is typically thought.