Stories of the Wild West Gang (review)

The prim and proper parents of only child Michael are horrified at the outrageous behavior of the West family, Michael's aunt, uncle, and cousins on his mother's side. Middle-grader Michael, though, is captivated by the Wests' freewheeling approach to life and the fun that ensues. Ten stories (most of which appear to have been previously published individually or in smaller anthologies in New Zealand) about Michael's adventures with the Wests are collected here, each of which is told in a series of numbered, chapter-like passages. Cowley is a dab hand at characterization and humor, and readers will long remember figures such as the shiftily entrepreneurial Royce, Michael's cousin and classmate who's always looking to make a buck without actually doing any work, and Grandadda, Uncle Leo's lively Irish father, who has an artificial foot and who loves his whiskey so much he's not above sneaking off to do a bit of busking in order to earn enough for a pint or two. The stories themselves are tightly crafted and expertly paced; a particular highlight is "The Wild West Gang and the Wonky Fence," which draws on the classic urban legend about a dog digging up a buried pet rabbit. Pye's simple and straightforward black and white illustrations (one illustration appears at the beginning of each story) gain depth and texture from hatching. The intended middle-grade audience may balk at the size and heft of this collection's densely printed 350-plus pages, but those willing to tackle it in the more bite-size pieces of each story may well get hooked enough to finish the entire thing on their own. As a classroom or family readaloud, this would be an absolutely stellar selection, and the page count might actually be a plus, as kids will surely keep requesting "just one more Wild West story."