Sunshine Rider - Hardcover

Hardman, Ric Lynden

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0385325436 ISBN 13: 9780385325431

Publisher: Delacorte Books for Young Readers, 1998

Synopsis

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.

About this title

From the Inside Flap

81. 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 portr

Reviews

Grade 5-9?Wylie Jackson, the 17-year-old hero of this unusual Western, narrates his unlikely adventures in a colorful style that brings out the humor in the characters and the situations he encounters. He sets off on his first cattle drive as a cook's helper, but also has responsibility for Roselle, the world's only cattalo (half cow, half buffalo). When she starts a stampede, Wylie begins a series of misdeeds that includes stealing horses, changing identities, and impersonating a doctor. He also becomes a vegetarian, a defender of bovine rights, and a better-than-average herb healer. Though he means well and is bitterly aware of his errors, Wylie can't seem to keep out of trouble. Each chapter opens with one or two recipes, several vividly but off-handedly describing the gore involved in preparing fresh-killed meat. Wylie's lively narrative voice carries the book through the plot twists and amusing episodes in a well-varied and nicely paced manner. Earnest and unintentionally funny at the outset, Wylie becomes more witty and ironic as the tale continues and he gains knowledge and experience. His gradual coming-of-age into a more thoughtful, responsible young adult is quite convincing and even moving. Filled with wild adventures, delightful dialogue, and humor both broad and subtle, this unusual book is a fine choice for reading aloud. Potential readers include fans moving up from Sid Fleischman's By the Great Horn Spoon (1963) and Chancy and the Grand Rascal (1989, both Little, Brown).?Steven Engelfried, West Linn Public Library, OR
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Gr. 9^-12. Odessa, Texas. 1881. It's dream-come-true time for 17-year-old Wylie Jackson when his aunt Clara arranges for him to go on a cattle drive to Wichita, Kansas. Hired on as an assistant cook, Wylie is in hog . . . er, heifer heaven--until he has to shoot a calf. Second thoughts set in, and before you can say "cucumber," Wylie has turned vegetarian and hightailed it for the horizon, accompanied only by Roselle, a pet cattalo (half-buffalo, half-Texas longhorn), who can sit on her haunches, count on command, and come when called. Determined by now to become a doctor, Wylie has one outrageous adventure after another, apprenticing with the great Indian medicine man Tim-oh-lee, casting his lot with the huckster and electric belt salesman Majul Majul (an East Indian), and winding up in the pokey alongside infamous killer Carl Merkle. Interspersed among these picaresque peccadilloes are recipes for such savory dishes as "Son of a Bitch Stew" and "Buffalo Gourd Mush." Part western, part cookbook, part American picaresque, part coming-of-age story, Sunshine Rider is a delightful and laugh-out-loud funny sum of its disparate parts. As for Wylie, he's an unforgettable protagonist who tells his own story in a voice brimful of frontier simile and metaphor ("You clamp into facts as a catamount into sheep guts"; "His voice was leathery and creaked like an over laden saddle"; "Lugging a war bag of regrets," etc.). Episodic on purpose, the plot moves along as briskly as a cattle stampede, and readers will be delighted to be carried along. Put this book on the shelf next to the likes of True Grit, Lonesome Dove, and The Travels of Jamie McPheeters, for it "shore nuff" deserves a place in their presence. Michael Cart

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

I'd seen the cattalo critter often enough since Alice had made it her pet. It was, to my thinking, an awkward-looking beast, deep-chested with thin rear legs and a big block head. Not yet a yearling, her horn buttons gave no clue what would emerge. She was tan-colored with a dang white face and a goatee suspended beneath her chin. She hadn't grown up to her eyes, which were enormous brown pools of what Alice said was intelligence. "Hybrids are often smarter than other cattle," she insisted. "They take the best of both breeds."

I wasn't sure Roselle hadn't taken the worst. She had a bag of tricks Alice had taught her, dumb things like standing on her hind legs and pawing the air, or lying down and rolling over. Dog tricks. She came when called. She sat down on command, which looked pretty comical. Alice said she would tap out numbers on the ground if she held up her fingers to give Roselle a clue, but I think Alice switched her fingers to match how many times Roselle tapped.

Anyway, Alice spent a good deal of time trying to get the beast accustomed to me.

"This is Wylie Jackson," she crooned. "He's going to take you to Enid with all these nice cattle. Here, pet her head, Wylie."

I did so, feeling more a fool than I already was feeling.

"There, isn't he nice, Roselle? Now, I want you to obey Wylie, unless he asks you to do something truly stupid, in which case you can set him straight."

I shot a sideways glance around, hoping none of the drovers caught me talking to this cattalo freak. Fortunately, they were all engaged at the holding pens branding late-arriving cattle. Alice told me to back off and call Roselle. I did as instructed, but the heifer did not come.

"Go on, Roselle. Go to Wylie."

She'd sooner have gone to hell. She kept looking at me, then at Alice and shaking her head.

"Call her again, Wylie."

"Here, Roselle."

"Well, put some life into it, Wylie! Not just flat like that, like you didn't care."

I didn't. "Here, Roselle."

"Go to Wylie," Alice said, and she shoved Roselle up to me. The beast gazed at me, reflecting on my existence and concluding it was of no importance.

We tried several more times, but I might as well have been a dead dog for all the attention Roselle paid to me. For a time Alice was stumped; then she got the brainstorm.

"Turn around, Wylie," she said.

By this time I was following instructions like a spring-wound toy soldier.

"Here, take these."

I raised my hand, and Alice put the article in it. It was warm. It was soft. It was embroidered. It was Alice Beck's drawers!

I about died. "What in thunder--!"

"Oh, shut up!" Alice said, backing away. "When I'm gone, she'll think you're me!"

Alice turned and ran toward town. The cattalo heifer had its attention fastened on the drawers and missed her going entirely.

Edition details

• Publisher: Delacorte Books for Young Readers
• Publication date: 1998
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0385325436
• ISBN 13: 9780385325431
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 352