Tall In The Saddle! Cowpoke Clyde Rides the Range by Lori Mortensen

Dawgnabbit, Dawg! What'll they think of next?

Paging through the latest Kit 'n' Kaboodle mail order catalog, Cowpoke Clyde comes across an ad for a two-wheeled velocipede. It's supposed to be fun! It promises adventure! How hard can it be?

IT WOULDN'T EAT. IT WOULDN'T STRAY.
IT WOULDN'T BUCK OR BITE OR NEIGH!

The shiny red bike finally arrives. It's everything the catalog promised--sturdy handlebars, steel body, rubber tires! Clyde is excited. He can ride any cayoose on four legs. Two wheels ought to be like a walk in the park.

But anybody who has learned to ride a bike knows it's not quite so easy. Horses don't turn over and they already know how to stop. And the range is no easy-ridin' sidewalk. There are hazards on those trails!

AS HE ROLLED, HE PICKED UP SPEED
ON HIS STRANGE, NEWFANGLED STEED,
WIBBLIN, WOBBLIN' DOWN THE ROAD,
RIGHT STRAIGHT AT A . . . HORNY TOAD!

The almost roadkill toad skitters away just in the nick of time, but up pops a jackrabbit right in Clyde's path. It's a good thing the hare is fast on his feet, because Clyde's are plumb off the pedals!

BRAKIN'? STEERIN'? HOW'D IT WORK?
RIDIN' BIKES WAS PLUMB BERSERK!

Clyde does a wheelie and is airborne as he barely misses a porcupine. He crashes the bike, gives it a disgusted kick in the fender, and dustin' off his Stetson in disgust, he and Dawg set out afoot for the bunkhouse.

But hoofin' it back, Clyde gets to thinkin'. He's busted more'n a few ornery broncos in his time. He's no cowardly cowpoke quitter, and he's gonna conquer this contraption!

Back in the saddle, he's startin' to get the hang of it. Dirty Dawg is lovin' it as he dashes up a ridge and Clyde starts the downhill run. But then he spots some critters grazin' right in his path. It's a whole herd of bighorn sheep! But daringly Dawg sprints ahead and does his thing, scattering the sheep as only a shaggy sheepdog can do.

Whee-ew!

SOON, CLYDE WAS RIDIN' LIKE A PRO
IN SOME TWO-WHEELED RODEO.

With a big YA-HOO, Clyde and Dawg are riding the range in Lori Mortensen's latest tale of the two wrangler pals, Cowpoke Clyde Rides the Range (Houghton Mifflin Clarion, 2016).

Kids who are just learning to ride a bike and those familiar with Mortensen's earlier Cowpoke Clyde and Dirty Dawg (review here) will chuckle at this forthcoming romp on the range, especially the final page in which they will see Cowpoke Clyde has rigged up a trailer for his new bike so Dawg can ride the range on wheels as well. Artist Michael Allen Austin is again the hired hand, back to proffer the comic artwork, done in desert duns, rusts, and tans, with perspective which works all the angles and with the lean and lanky cowpoke and his shaggy sidekick just as quirky and quixotic as ever.

Stetsons off to Mortensen and Austin, two old picture book hands, back on the trail again!