September 25, 2012

Magical horses

The Cowboy Kid
by Gilles Tibo


A barefooted city boy pretends to be a cowboy in this fanciful picture book. When he falls asleep, he dreams about magical horses that come alive and stampede across the night sky. Double-page spreads by artist Tom Kapas add to the suspense. A particularly dramatic picture shows horses leaping out of paintings in a grand museum. However, the picture that closes the book is a bit frightening. It shows a child in bed, surrounded by stuffed animals and small horses dancing about the pillow. The child is awake, with an open-mouthed expression of either awe or fright; it's a little hard to tell. It may scare very young readers. 


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