One page says, “Real cowboys are as many different colors as the earth,” and shows a spectrum of cowboys matched to earthy tones. The characters are shown in many different shades of color throughout the book. Many of the cowboys are shown only in silhouette and could be male or female. On another page, a girl or small woman is working with a man to drive in a lost heifer. She is certainly shown to be fully in the action and just as involved and tough as the others. The woman is pretty rugged looking, just as the men are, and you can only tell she’s a woman really by a hint of color that looks like streaming hair. Almost all of the cowboys seem to be male (as you might expect with such a job title), with the main exception being a page that reads, “Real cowboys are girls, too,” and shows a woman roping a calf. The main idea behind this book seems to be targeted to males and trying to subvert toxic masulinity ideas. Buy This BookĪmazon Affiliate Link: Real Cowboys Video Point out what you see after they take it in themselves. I suggest you really take your time over the pages and let them soak in the illustrations.
(That doesn’t mean the whole book is realistic, though - the sky is used in fanciful ways several times, showing animals the cowboys are thinking about, and sometimes you can see through things.) What Do I Do With This Information?īuy this book, particularly if you have a young boy to read to. I feel like the depictions of the cowboys are very realistic in the way they look and what they’re doing. The illustrations are so interesting and beautiful. The writing itself is minimalist and poetic - saying exactly enough and no more. It points out - rightly - that cowboys care for their animals, are quiet, cooperative, and peaceful, good listeners, patient, etc., and that they are every color. This book is so gorgeous! I love the overall theme, which subverts the typical ideas about cowboys. That is not in any way an indictment, though! I like challenging my little guy to see a bit differently. The geometry of the images, the often-darkish color palette, and the fanciful things happening in the sky might make this a bit harder for little ones to figure out than books with more straight-forward illustrations. I felt like it was a bit tough for him to parse what was going on in the pictures because of the illustration style. My 2.5-year-old son enjoyed this book and wanted to read it several times and really looked a long time at the pictures. We see lots of scenes of cowboys engaged in their work, while the author points out how cowboys are quiet, want peace, care for others, etc. What Happens in this Book? (**Spoilers!**)
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