The Dirty Cowboy
By Amy Timberlake, Pictures by Adam Rex
Farrar Straus Giroux
2003 (first edition)
Condition: Excellent.
Why I keep it: intellectual [*]
Rarely have I been more delighted by a children’s picture book than when I read (and re-read and re-read yet again) Timberlake’s debut book, “The Dirty Cowboy.” The best picture books provide a perfect marriage between story and illustrator, and the publisher Farrar Straus Giroux made a wonderful decision when it paired Timberlake’s dryly humorous text with illlustrator Adam Rex’s outstandingly funny and richly detailed pictures.
There’s a wonderful history to this book as well. Apparently this story was one Timberlake’s grandfather told her when she was a kid, and when she decided to write her first book, this was the story that most wanted to be told.
The Cowboy of the title is one filthy hombre. Timberlake lists his crimes against hygiene as follows: “(his) hair housed thirty-two fleas and a small grey spider”; “he’d discovered a tumbleweed in his chaps”; “a flurry of flies flocked round his body buzzing so persistently that he experienced a distinct loss of hearing in his left ear”; and “(his) stench stuck to passersby like mud splashed up from a wagon wheel.”
The Cowboy lives with his dog and his horse in a tin shack. They don’t seem to mind his slovenly appearance, but one day for no reason whatsoever the Cowboy announces “This ol’ boy needs a bath.” (A line that never fails to crack me up and that can be read with a faux Western accent that delights young listeners.) The trio travel to the local watering hole (literally a little mud hole in which one can wash), and the cowboy gets “nekkid” and tells his dog, “Dawg! No one touches these clothes but me. Hear?”
The illustrations of Cowboy’s bath with carefully placed bubbles, frogs, birds, dust, and other assorted animal parts add to the hilarity, although Timberlake provides a funny description of the Cowboy’s bath too. The washing goes well, but things start to go awry when the Cowboy tries to retrieve his clothes. The dog sniffs the Cowboy and wonders:
“Where was that sweaty, wild boar-like smell that clung to the cowboy like a second pair of clothes? Where was the smell of black pepper and mesa mud? And where, oh where, was the smell of cow?”
The dog decides this man who looks and sounds like his owner can’t possible be his owner because the smell is all wrong. What ensues is a hilarious dust-up between cowboy and canine. Particularly hilarious are Rex’s wrestling scenes that, again, employ various pieces of clothing and animals to cover up the Cowboy’s naughty bits. I won’t give away the ending, but it definitely satisfied me.
What I love best about this book is that it’s funny enough to stand up to multiple readings for the discerning, and often bored, adult reader, but it also appeals to kids who will continue to find lots of details to point out in the pictures and who will quote the dialogue endless.
And if that’s not enough, the book has won a bazillion prizes and other honors. (OK, maybe not that many, but a lot of honors which, as it turns out, matters a lot to some parents who want to know that their kids aren’t just reading an entertaining story but that they’re also reading something that has received a seal of approval for both its entertainment value and its general literary worth.) Should you care about that kind of thing, the honors are as follows:
- SCBWI’s Golden Kite Award
- Parents Choice Gold Medal
- International Reading Association 2004 Notable Book Citation
- Bulletin Blue Ribbon
- First Prize in the 2004 Marion Vannett Ridgway Awards
- Finalist for the Spur Award (Western Writers of America)
- Finalist for Southeast Booksellers Association 2004 Book Award
- Adapted into a musical for children by Lifeline Theatre in Chicago, Ill.
Coming tomorrow: “Middlesex” by Jeffrey Eugenides
Further reading:
Amy Timberlake’s official site
Help! The Writing Process of The Dirty Cowboy: From Family Story to Published Book
Adam Rex’s official site
Adam Rex’s blog