Cowpoke Clyde's house was completely clean?he'd even shooed off the horseflies: "Then right behind his cookin' pot, he spied one thing he'd plumb forgot: ol'Dawg, his faithful, snorin' friend, all caked with mud from end to end." Needless to say, Dawg wakes up and runs. The chase that follows?with page-turn surprises?makes for a hilarious shaggy-dog story involving fleas, a hog, bribery, cats, deception, and a mule. The rhyming stanzas are pitch-perfect, Texas-style, and plumb near cry out to be read aloud. Austin's expressive acrylic and coloured-pencil caricatures of Cowpoke Clyde and his menagerie are priceless. A story time shoo-in! AGES: 4-8 AUTHOR: Lori Mortensen is an award-winning author. She lives with her family in California. Visit her website at www.lorimortensen.com. Michael Allen Austin is the award-winning illustrator of several children's books. Publishers Weekly has exclaimed that his illustrations are "wild and wily," and Booklist has called his art "unusual and exuberant." He lives in Atlanta with his wife, Kim, and their own wild animal, Riley the sheepdog. His website is www.austinillustration.com. ILLUSTRATIONS: Colour throughout
