Module 4: Book Review 11-Social Studies Poetry

 Cowboys: Voices in the Western Wind

Bibliography

Harrison, D.L., Burr, D. (2012) Cowboys: Voices in the Western Wind. Pennsylvania: WordSong. ISBN 9781590788776

Summary

Saddle up and take a ride with the cowboys on a cattle drive to Abilene in this spectacular poetry collection.  Take part in branding cattle, mending fences, a burning sun, Cookie’s cooking, and even a stampede to get you started.  Join David L. Harrison and his twenty-two poems that share the adventures of cowboys driving three thousand longhorns up to Abilene.  Imagine what life was like through the detailed and vivid paintings by Dan Burr that pair well with each poem. Immerse yourself in each poem and illustration this story has to offer about the life of a cowboy.  

Analysis

In this story, readers experience what life was like for cowboys during the American Frontier.  Through twenty-two free verse poems, we learn about the struggles, hardships, and challenges cowboys faced during that era.  The story shares the voices of these cowboys written in first person and in the language a cowboy would speak.  From the first poem, Sign Me Up, readers experience that language immediately, “Every year I say I’m quit/ had my fill’a drivin’ cows to Abilene/ Sign me up again/ I reckon not.”  Other poems in the book are written for two people like in Makes Perfect and Prairie News, and still share the language a cowboy would speak. 

This book also does an excellent job at igniting the senses.  From the sights, sounds, and smells channeled in several of the poems, readers get to truly experience the survival of life on the drive. The poem, The Bunkhouse, brings about typical smells and sights cowboys faced, “It’s nice to have a bunkhouse/ in case you’re partial to smellin’ sweat/ boots trackin’ cow manure/ and lamps burnin’ skunk fat oil.”  With these poems, readers are planted in a part of America’s past that tends to draw the interest of many adults and kids. 

This is the perfect book to share with students that are a little older.  Grades 4^th through 7^th would really enjoy the language and illustrations of this story and is ideal for a social studies classroom.  Harrison and Burr collaborated nicely and created a book that is sure to be used and read by many.  Burr’s illustrations which are paintings are so life-like that they pull readers into each scene and depict true and real emotions of the cowboys. 

Cowboys: Voices in the Western Wind is a marvelous book to read.  It is a poetry collection that teaches readers about what life was like as a cowboy and on the American Frontier.  Take in a history lesson with just twenty-two short poems and learn about branding, cowboy attire, fears and thoughts had during a stampede, and so much more.  

Excerpt

First day out, fifteen miles,
one thousand miles to go.
 
One thousand miles
of burnin’ sun,
swollen rivers,
stampedes, wolves,
three thousand cows,
fifteen men,
one thousand miles to go.
 
Up from Texas headed north,
next hot bath two months away.
Half-wild longhorns graze the trail,
not too fast, not too slow,
cows are money, pounds are dollars,
make the rancher rich and happy,
one thousand miles to go.
 
Someone has to walk these critters,
lead the way, guard their rear.
Someone has to round up strays,
watch for danger in the night,
work till horse and rider drop,
one thousand miles to go.
 
From Texas through the Indian lands
clear to Abilene.
We can't wait to get there,
and we've only just begun. 

Use

This entire book is a history lesson in itself.  This specific poem though would be used in a lesson to teach about the journey of a cattle drive.  It would be used to teach about maps and mileage to students as well as different landforms cowboys came across on their journey across the land.