Starred Review for Publishers Weekly (Thu Apr 28 00:00:00 CDT 2022)

Maybe it was the 32 fleas in his hair or the tumbleweed in his chaps, "but whatever his reason, on that fateful day, the cowboy picked a doodlebug out of his right eyebrow and said, 'This ol' boy needs a bath.' " His decision leads to hilarious trials and tribulations in this outstanding debut for both author and illustrator. Timberlake's keen comic timing and abundant western witticisms fit hand in glove with Rex's farcical golden- and copper-toned illustrations, which call to mind the tall-tale humor of Andrew Glass. The energetic compositions vary from spread to spread, including time-lapse cartoon-like panels, such inventive touches as close-up shots of individually numbered fleas, and borders that simulate rope or rustic wood, displaying native flora and fauna. The cowboy bears the goofy countenance of a befuddled Alfred E. Neuman. Best of all is the absurdly fortuitous camouflage of private parts: birds fly by, a rabbit stirs up a dust cloud at just the right moment and so on. After a good scrub in a New Mexico river, the cowboy finds his faithful dog (told to guard his clothes) growling at this clean-smelling stranger ("Where was that sweaty, wild boar–like smell that clung to the cowboy like a second pair of clothes?"). Only after the cowboy is sufficiently soiled by the ensuing tussle does the dog recognize him and release what remains of the duds. Transcending the cowboy-tale genre, this raucous romp should tickle bath-averse children everywhere. Ages 4-8. <EMPHASIS TYPE=""ITALIC"">(Aug.)

ALA Booklist (Mon Sep 01 00:00:00 CDT 2003)

A cowboy decides to take his yearly bath, so he heads to a nearby river, where he orders his scruffy dog to guard his clothes. When the cowboy returns from the river, he's so clean that the dog doesn't recognize him. The two get into an extended fracas, leaving the cowboy as filthy as ever and the clothes in tatters. Naked and dirty, the cowboy finally returns home, the dog trotting beside him. For some children, the appeal of this story is in the clever composition of the pictures that manages to conceal the cowboy's private bits. Rex's rich paintings add sparkle to the story's dramatic telling with the attention to detail and humor that may remind some grownups of Norman Rockwell's early work. A simple, slapstick tale that is sure to elicit some giggles.

School Library Journal

Gr 5-9 Thirteen-year-old Azad, an Iranian Kurd, narrates Mead's affecting tale of life during the Iran-Iraq War of the 1980s. The repressive regime of Ayatollah Khomeini has already torn Azad's family apart. An only child who has lived with his father during the six years following his parents' divorce, he learns in the course of the novel that his mother left the family because his father, driven by fear, became an informer for the secret police. Along with this familial tension, the Kurds' untenable situation also undergirds the story. This ethnic group lives in double jeopardy, distrusted by their own government and hated by the Iraqi regime of Saddam Hussein. Azad is fortunate in being able to spend time with each of his parents and in being able to leave his home in Sardasht for the rural village where his grandmother lives. The galvanizing event of the months covered by the novel is Hussein's gassing of Sardasht, which leads Azad, his mother, and other family members to flee Iran for Turkey. Like Elizabeth Laird and Sonia Nimr's A Little Piece of Ground (Haymarket, 2006), Dawn and Dusk is a tale of children caught in the horror of war, seen from the side of the conflict considered most hostile to American interests. Azad is an appealing protagonist, and it is his simple and direct story that will draw readers through the complexities of a multinational ethnic longing for self-determination that remains at the heart of an international tinderbox. Coop Renner, Hillside Elementary, El Paso, TX

Horn Book (Thu Apr 01 00:00:00 CST 2004)

One morning, a very dirty cowboy decides to take his annual bath. But once he's clean, his faithful dog doesn't recognize his scent and won't relinquish his clothes. Timberlake's twangy storytelling and funny phonetic speech bubbles ("Whoorrugg?" asks the dog) and Rex's sepia-toned illustrations, full of inspired ways to conceal the cowboy's nudity, make for a humorous and original tall tale.

Kirkus Reviews

Deciding, for obscure reasons, that it's time for a bath, a solitary cowboy discovers that being clean can have unexpected complications in this side-splitting double debut. Ordering his dog to guard his clothes, the cowboy bounds into a river with a nearly new bar of lye soap to wash off the reek of black pepper and mesa mud, of wild boar and cow. But the dog doesn't recognize this fresh-smelling stranger, and defends the duds until a knockdown, drag-out brawl leaves the cowboy covered in mud. Unfortunately, this leaves those clothes, except for hat and boots, in shreds. Realistically modeling setting and figures, but keeping the Legion of Decency off his case in numerous artful ways, Rex puts his cowhand, "naked as a nickel," up against a decidedly coyote-ish canine, then sends the two plodding back to their shack beneath an ineffectual rain shower. Inspired by an anecdote passed down in the author's family, this cautionary tale should please all young readers with an aversion to soap and water. (Picture book. 7-9)