Sparky and Eddie Wild, Wild Rodeo (Hello Reader)

When two best friends compete in a mock rodeo at school, they learn that winning is not everything

Kindergarten-Grade 2AA mock rodeo in school pits Sparky and Eddie's classes against one another. The two best friends gallop off to school on sock-headed broomstick horses, each carrying a teddy bear. After several events, including teddy-bear roping, a boot search, and a tortilla toss, the classes are tied. Finally, Eddie's group is able to figure out the most uses for a bandanna and wins the rodeo, and Sparky, who hates to lose, begins to cry. In the end, after being consoled by Eddie, he concedes that having a best friend is more important than victory. Presumably these are kindergartners or first graders, but the children pictured and their actions make them seem younger. Although condescending, this beginning reader does illustrate the value of good sportsmanship. Lively watercolor paintings of multiethnic children in competition and a spirited black female principal refereeing the events are engaging. An additional purchase.ASally R. Dow, Ossining Public Library, NY
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Best friends Sparky and Eddie are a pair of easy- readin'/easy-ridin' cowboys. It's rodeo day and the big-boots- wearing Sparky and ten-gallon-hat-wearing Eddie smack their jeans and gallop on their sock-headed horses, ya-hooing all the way to school. Tying up teddy bears, searching for boots, and tossing stale tortillas are slated events in the all-day rodeo. The tiebreaker is to come up with uses for a bandanna. When Eddie's team wins, Sparky gets weepy, and the obvious use for the bandanna is drying cowboy tears. A palette of sunset-colored watercolors imparts just the right amount of bustin'-at-the-seams energy, from the lasso-twirling principal to a class loop-de-looping themselves into a tangled heap. A galloping tale of friendship, with enough cowboy antics to satisfy new readers, budding Buffalo Bills, and Annie Oakleywannabes alike. (Fiction. 5-7) -- Copyright ©1998, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Gr. 1^-2. In the second Sparky and Eddie book from the Hello, Reader! series, the two best friends become wildly excited as they prepare for the school rodeo. Dressed in western garb and raring to go, the boys and their classmates compete in four events: roping their teddy bears, searching a mountain of boots for their own and putting them on, flinging tortillas Frisbee-style for distance, and naming all the possible uses for a bandanna. After Sparky's class loses, and he collapses in tears, the boys learn a lesson about winning, losing, and friendship. With precise words and sunny pictures, this action-filled story captures the pure, single-minded excitement that characterizes a primary-grade child on a very good day. And with the same lively qualities of observation and expression, the book shows the downside that so often follows. A highly entertaining entry in a fine series for beginning readers. Carolyn Phelan