Roundup at the Palace by Kathleen Cook Waldron, illustrated by Alan & Lea Daniel Ages 4-8 32 pages Red Deer Press April 2006 Hardcover     Roundup at the Palace evokes images of old Americana with brightly colored watercolor-style drawings that made me think of Carl Sandburg’s Rootebaga Stories, a book I treasured as a child. This rollicking story is set on a cold Colorado ranch, where a young lad named Zack is preparing his prize bull Buster for the National Western Stock Show in Denver. But on the way, a snowstorm bungles the travel plans, and when Buster busts on out of his trailer, things get really crazy for Zack and his dad. Not to mention the folks staying at the fancy Brown Palace Hotel, where Buster is about to bust inside and, like the proverbial bull in a china shop, make a big mess. That’s when a young gal named Alice steps in and helps Zack sooth the savage beast and get him back on the road and back to the Stock Show. The story, by critically acclaimed children’s picture book author Kathleen Cook Waldron, will no doubt have kids grinning as Buster the bull rampages through the hoity-toity hotel, but kids will also love the imaginative theme of finding friendship when you least expect it. Alan and Lea Daniel, collaborators on 23 book in the award-winning Songbox Series, use splashes of color and line drawings with often murky edges to create images that seem to move on the page, and again have a whimsical nostalgia that make me think of days gone by. Roundup at the Palace is unique and entertaining, with special appeal for young boys who fancy themselves cowpokes, even if all they own is a big, goofy dog.       web reviews   Marie D. Jones/2006 for curled up with a good kid's book   For grown-up fiction, nonfiction and speculative fiction book reviews, visit our sister site Curled Up With a Good Book (www.curledup.com)