Cowboy Camp by Tammi Sauer and Mike Reed (Sterling Publishing)

It's a rootin' tootin' (thankfully no shootin') cowboy fest in this cute little board book from Tammi Sauer and Mike Reed. "Cowboy Camp" tells the story of young Avery, possibly the WORST cowboy in history. Shipped off to Cowboy Camp for the summer, Avery soon realises that a life in the saddle eating beans and roping steers really isn't for him. He hates the taste of beans, he's violently allergic to horses (ATCHOO!) and as for his lasso skills, the less said the better.

Despite the expert tuition of Cowboy Andy, Avery is forlorn and dejected after his first day at camp, and sits out under the stars. But the camp has a nasty visitor, that no good varmint Black Bart has come to wreak revenge for the camp churning out so many lantern-jawed heroic cowboys, making it a tough time for ne'er do wells. Can Avery somehow summon all his latent cowboy-ness to stand up to Bart?

I love it when books elicit an "Oooh!" from Charlotte. "Cowboy Camp" is more suitable for 3-5 year olds but she still loved it, thanks in no small part to the fact that we really don't see a lot of cowboy books around these parts (yee-haw!) and it's a lovely simple story of finding that even the most useless cowpoke in the world can actually be good at something, and perhaps save the day. We loved Mike Reed's atmospheric prairie-bound illustrations in this too!

Charlotte's best bit: Poor Avery really doesn't like beans! Spewwwwww!

Daddy's Favourite bit: A rootin' tootin' cowboy spectacular perfect for tinies!

(Kindly sent to us for review by GMC / Sterling)