I Want to Be a Cowgirl

by Jeanne Willis

Book Overview

Meet a city girl with a big Wild West dream. "I don't want to be a good girl- Good girls have no fun. I can't play quiet games indoors, I love the rain and sun. I don't want to be a girly girl Who likes to sit and chat. I just want to be a cowgirl, Daddy, What's so wrong with that?" From the window of a high-rise city apartment, a little girl imagines a very different view and dreams of a very different life, but does it have to be just a dream?The...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0805069976
• ISBN13: 9780805069976
• Release Date: April 2002
• Publisher: Henry Holt & Company
• Length: 32 Pages
• Weight: 0.85 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 8.9" x 11.6"
• Age Range: 4 to 8 years
• Grade Range: Preschool to Grade 3

Customer Reviews

A New Favorite

My little horse-obsessed 4yr old loves her new book. She received several for her birthday, but this one is requested multiple times a day. It's a cute, quick read and we notice new details of the illustrations each time.

Saddle Up!

A young girl relays to her father her dream of being a cowgirl in the Wild West rather than a good girl, a nice girl, or a school girl who reads or plays nicely indoors. Whimsical watercolor and ink illustrations bring the rhyming text to life by turning a shaggy rug into a pair of chaps, Daddy's fedora into a cowboy hat and a stray dog into a piebald mare. Lazy clouds drift in and out of shapes - cattle, cowboy hats, cacti and covered wagons - to illustrate the girl's imagination. The city-country contrast is deftly played out in subtle details like skyscrapers shaped like cacti and a junk heap that takes the form of a heard of cattle. An excellent read for imaginative children, especially girls, everywhere. Ages 4-8.

Don't Fence Me In.....

As our young narrator tells us in no uncertain terms, she's not interested in being a good girl, or a girly girl, sitting around with friends chatting, having tea parties, and playing with dolls. That's not her idea of fun. She definitely doesn't want to have her head in a book, or cook, clean, and sew. And as for high-rise living in the big city, well this young lady yearns to live on the prairie, breaking broncos, driving cattle, twirling her lasso, and sleeping under the stars. And that's just what she plans to do. "I've got my shiny spurs and boots,/I've got my cowgirl hat-/I'm leaving for the Wild, Wild West./Now what's so wrong with that?" Jeanne Willis and Tony Ross have authored an imaginative and humorous ode to the wild, wild west, with a very satisfying, feel-good ending, that's sure to become a read aloud favorite at your house. Ms Willis' rhyming text is entertaining and engaging, and begs to be read with a lilting western drawl. Mr Ross' charming and creative, cartoon-like artwork is rich in expressive, wild west images, and sharp eyed readers will enjoy poring over the illustrations and finding all the special and amusing details in each picture. Perfect for youngsters 3-7, I Want To Be A Cowgirl is a rootin' tootin' good time for little cowpokes with big dreams of their own.

BOLD ILLUSTRATIONS ADD ANOTHER DIMENSION OF FUN

Under a city sky scuttled with cactus shaped clouds a dissatisfied little miss stoutly declares that she doesn't want to be a good girl, but a cowgirl instead. Surrounded by books and needlework in her 20th floor apartment she observes that good girls have absolutely no fun, and she does this in lilting rhyme: "I don't want to be a girly girl, Who likes to sit and chat. I just want to be a cowgirl, Daddy, What's so wrong with that?" Vested and hatted Daddy thinks this is a really absurd ambition. Nonetheless, off his little daughter goes to Texas, to the wild, wild west. As it turns out, she doesn't go alone. Tony Ross's inimitable boldly colored illustrations add another dimension of fun to this lively tale of a little girl's dream. - Gail Cooke