Title: Roy’s Ranch
Author: G.F. Welch
Illustration by: Weezie Jones
Publisher: XlibrisUS
ISBN: 978-1-9845-6824-3
Genre: Illustrated Children’s Book – Nature / Animals
Pages: 34
Reviewed by: Beth Adams
Pacific Book Review
Author G.F. Welch has written a book which will entertain children about an adventure which includes camping, eating hot dogs, sleeping in a tent, visiting Uncle Roy’s ranch, playing with animals and even the suspense of having a family member lost, temporarily, that is. Roy’s Ranch has the ranch as the destination, but as many families know the adventure of leaving home becomes inclusive, making the journey as much fun as the destination. And like it is so often, it feels very good to be back home at the end of any trip.
Along the way the family of seven (2 girls, 3 boys and of course parents) are introduced to readers with portraits of each of the members. The narrator is one of the boys, the son in the middle. Readers can identify with this family regardless of how many brothers and sisters they have in their own family. This brings in a welcome level of personalization to the story, immersing the reader into the family dynamics of the group, and in a way having the readers “Going along” for the adventure. Uncle Roy’s ranch has many animals, and the children get to pet and learn about each of them – large cows grazing, lambs as baby sheep, geese chasing them away, deer off in the distance,
coyotes howling at night, a snake keeping its distance, and other interactions. Yet just as entertaining and fun animals are, children have a short attention span and begin to get bored and thus get into mischief. That is when the youngest son wanders off and is lost, causing much anxiety in the parents searching for him, only to be rescued by a cowboy on a horse!
The illustrations are very original in their style, and the galley text is superimposed over each page’s edge-to-edge drawings. This makes the pictures a major part of the story. My only criticism of the drawings is that I wish the children would have smiled more often. I recommend Roy’s Ranch to all young children to enjoy, as it is an outdoor adventure which is quite at home on a bedside table. A trip to uncle Roy’s ranch is the perfect launching point to go off to dreamland.
