Pecos Bill

Must have to read to young sons and/or grandsons. Great adventure with wonderful illustrations and easy read - a six-year old can help you!

If you are looking for a book that is funny you should read Pecos Bill by Steven Kellogg. I think this book is good because how it explains the things that happened. Like how cattle roping was invented. But it is not non-fiction. If I were you I would get this book and read it!

Reading this book with my child was easy. The illustrations gave way to more imagination about the story, we both loved it.

I use this book in Middle School Classes to supplement reading for Texas History. Yes, I know the book is below reading level of 7th Graders. However the skill for identifying "bias" is th ultimate goal. Pecos Bill and other writings by Kellogg help the students acquire the identified skill.

While the book is filled with huge illustrations, the edge has been taken off the story. Part of what made the Pecos Bill story appealing when I was a child was the danger involved and the rough and ready lifestyle. This is just too "white bread" - boring, bland, yawn inducing. They completely domesticated Widowmaker (his horse), referring to him as "Lightening" for the majority of the story. On the plus side, the story retains a few more elements than Kellogg's abyssmal rendering of Paul Bunyan.