Gr 2-5-Little Slue Foot Sal, Pecos Bill's daughter, wants a pet. Ike Levy, who has a mail-order house in Chicago, sends her two hamsters because one might get lonesome. The hamsters increase by leaps and bounds, outgrow their cages, and mysteriously disappear. They reappear on the open range, where they eat all the grass, terrorize the longhorns, and take over the water holes. If Pecos Bill can get those thousands of hamsters to Abilene, they can go by train to city kids in Chicago. So the Great Texas Hamster Drive begins. Despite wide rivers, thunderstorms, stampedes, and the allure of prairie dog tunnels, the hamsters make it to their destination. A teary-eyed Sal waves good-bye but brightens at the thought of another pet-maybe a gerbil or two. Whatley's cartoon-style illustrations are rendered in watercolor, the blue and brown palette reminiscent of the Texas sky and open range. Kimmel's droll humor and understated, believable style is a good contrast to the traditional, larger-than-life retelling in Steven Kellogg's Pecos Bill (HarperCollins, 1986). Inspired by a school in Texas where children helped a commercial breeder take care of thousands of hamsters, Kimmel's tall tale is sure to make young readers smile.-Mary Jean Smith, Southside Elementary School, Lebanon, TN Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information.

Kimmel spins out an original yarn featuring Pecos Bill, Slue Foot Sue, their five children and 18,376 hamsters. When the youngest young'un, Slue Foot Sal, asks for a pet hamster, her fond parents oblige. Unfortunately, she gets two—and in no time a scampering swarm has fanned out over the prairie, nibbling down the grass and spooking the longhorns. Fortunately, Bill knows a man in Chicago who'll take them all (for pets). Unfortunately, they'll first have to be rounded up and herded to the railyard in Abilene. Using a palette of invitingly pale, warm hues, Whatley depicts squads of smiling, irresistibly cute hamsters in close-up ground level and underground scenes being herded by broad-faced, comically confused-looking "cow" pokes in full western gear. Readers who didn't get their fill of hamsters from Peggy Rathmann's 10 Minutes Till Bedtime (1998) will scurry after this rodentine rout; it also makes a good match for Barbara Ann Porte's A Turkey Drive and Other Tales , illustrated by Yossi Abolafia (1993). (Picture book. 7-9)

Set on the Texas range, Kimmel's original tall tale casts legendary cowboy Pecos Bill as an indulgent parent. Ranchers Bill and his wife dote on their only daughter, who asks for a pet hamster. Bill dutifully orders a pair ("one might get lonely"), and soon the ranch is overrun with fuzzy, pouch-cheeked rodents that multiply into the thousands. Bill calls his mail-order clerk pal, who agrees to find homes for the hamsters. The problem is getting the animals to the depot for transport. So begins the Great Texas Hamster Drive, as Bill and his cowboys mount their horses and drive the herd across the range. Kimmel's text will make a long but rewarding read-aloud. Kids will delight in the cowboy slang, the notion of a storybook legend as a dad, and the irresistibly exaggerated silliness in both the words and the clearly outlined, dust-colored watercolors. Particularly memorable are the close-ups of the thundering hamster stampede. For more western-themed tall tales, suggest Steven Kellogg's Pecos Bill (1986) and Janet Stevens' Jackalope (2003).