Cowboy Dreams

In a diverting tale guaranteed to fulfill any child's fantasies about life in the Old West, a city girl who longs to become a cowboy serves as heroine and narrator. She listens to Lone Ranger radio broadcasts (`` `Hi Ho, Silver! Away!' were practically the first words I ever said.''), studies equine paintings and Saturday movie matinees to learn about horses, and buys a raffle ticket to win a trusty steed. ``Dreaming of life in the Wild West,'' she rides a local merchant's mechanical horse; she even makes her own mount on the basement banister. As she sings her beloved cowboy songs, this would-be Dale Evans envisions herself (astride a model horse) in the midst of the lyrics. The late Khalsa's whimsically perceptive cityscapes--a lyrical F.A.O. Schwartz interior, a quintessential suburban backyard that features a palomino in the garage--are surpassed only by her mesmerizing desert panoramas, with their imaginative perspectives. Inviting mesas and canyons seem to stretch into infinity, while lucky indeed are the deer and antelope who can play in these lush valleys. Ages 6-8. (Apr.)