On the Pampas

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Welcome to cowboy life, South American style. With a sure hand, the author, who grew up in Buenos Aires and summered on her grandparents' nearby ranch, recalls the kind of experience just about every child yearns for at one time or another: learning to ride a horse and use a lasso, helping round up cattle for branding, slipping out to the bunkhouse at night and listening to the tall tales of the cowboys (in this case, gauchos). This story has the added spice of an unusual setting (the flat pampas grasslands) and unusual activities--hunting for ostrich eggs, earning a silver coin-studded gaucho belt by summer's end. Brusca's workmanlike watercolors supply a welcome snapshot of a part of the world not often pictured for children, and her gaily decorated endpapers provide a visual dictionary of the Spanish terms that pepper the text. Ages 4-7. (Mar.)

School Library Journal

Gr 2-4-- Brusca, a city child from Buenos Aires, recounts a summer spent at her grandparents' estancia on the Argentine pampas. Although she has visited before, this time she participates more fully in the daily life of the gauchos. She and her cousin ride and care for the horses, rope calves, help with the cattle roundup, collect the giant eggs of the nandu , and learn to dance the zamba at Grandmother's birthday asado. On her last morning, the girl brings in the riding horses from the field by herself. In recognition of her summer's growth, Grandmother gives her a much-coveted gaucho belt and the assurance that next year she will have a horse of her own. Brusca's watercolor cartoons, done in a folksy style, are filled with unexpected details of landscape, architecture, clothing, and local flora and fauna, as well as visually pleasing color and form. Even the endpapers depict plants, animals, and everyday objects native to or typical of the pampas. Her work succeeds on two levels--picture book art and social studies. Neither teachers nor students will want to miss this very attractive chance for learning. --Ruth Semrau, Lovejoy School, Allen, TX