K-Gr 2-Lexie is the "best wrangler west of the Mississippi, and everyone [knows] it." She is not just any kind of wrangler. Lexie captures letters and words with her lasso and puts them together to form new ones. She transforms a "p-e-s-t" into a group of furry "p-e-t-s" and lassoes an ear of corn and a loaf of bread to make "cornbread." One day, Lexie notices that letters and words are going missing or are unnecessarily being introduced at her ranch (the "dogies" become "doggies" after someone unleashes a gaggle of lowercase g's, for instance). Lexie goes on a mission to find the culprit and stop all of the word madness. While introducing spelling, compound words, and the intricacies of language to young readers is essential, this might not be the best place to start. Many of the words that Lexie wrangles are spelled out with her lasso in an exaggerated, curvy script that will not be accessible to those learning these concepts. There are many examples of Lexie's "word wrangling" throughout that interrupt the flow of the narrative, stopping it in its tracks at times. Hartland's bright gouache illustrations capture the many colors of the American West as well as various aspects of the cowboy lifestyle. A "dictionary of wrangler words" appears in the back matter for those who may not be familiar with the many cowgirl terms used in the book. VERDICT An additional purchase for those looking for stories about spelling and cowgirls.-Christopher Lassen, BookOps: The New York Public Library and Brooklyn Public Library © Copyright 2017. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Everyone knows Lexie is the best wrangler west of the Mississippibest word wrangler, that is.Outfitted in a tall hat and fancy boots, the freckle-faced white girl can ride, twirl a lariat, and herd cantankerous cattle. Besides that, she can tie words together, like "corn" and "bread" to make "cornbread." In the spring she watches the baby letters grow into words that she can herd into sentences and then make into messages. Everyone agrees that Lexie is a champion word wrangler, except for one rascal who starts messing with her words. "Dogies" become "doggies," a "bandana" becomes a "banana," and a twinkling "star" is turned into several "rats." "Ain't no fun sleeping out under the rats," says Lexie in a colossal understatement. Yep, it's a word rustler at work. Lexie sets off to find the culprit and bring him to justice. In a sundown ambush, she lassoes the scoundrel: it's a black kid named Russell. All he wants is to work with words like Lexie. So Russell the word rustlermake that wrestlerjoins Lexie the word wrangler, and a rootin' tootin' team is hitched up. Hartland's quirky gouache illustrations, reminiscent of Maira Kalman's work, play up the Western-style humor. The last page has a dictionary of wrangler words. Here's hoping Van Slyke and Hartland will round up some more nifty yarns, as this is clever wordplay to share with kids. (Picture book. 5-8) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

*Starred Review* The best wrangler west of the Mississippi, Lexie can handle horses, lariats, and cattle with ease, but especially excels as a word wrangler. She ties words together, turning butter and fly into butterfly. She grows a into age, sage, and sagebrush. She herds words into sentences, and sentences into stories. But one day, a missing d turns Lexie's bandana into a banana. That night, a twinkling S-T-A-R turns into R-A-T-S. Yep, a word rustler is on the loose. The mischief gets sillier when the rascal turns the desert into a dessert, but he meets his match in Lexie, who finds better uses for his talents. An appended glossary defines terms such as dogies, chuck wagon, and varmint. Colorful language abounds in the clever, playful text, which will amuse kids whose work on reading has given them a heightened awareness of the written word. Teachers, meanwhile, will appreciate the references to compound words, anagrams, and other wordplay. Created in a rather childlike style that perfectly suits the story's droll, understated tone, Hartland's expressive gouache paintings include enough detail to help kids visualize the scenes, while illustrating the action with considerable wit. Highly recommended for reading aloud, just for the fun of it.--Phelan, Carolyn Copyright 2017 Booklist

Lexie is a cowgirl, but she wrangles words, not cattle-a concept that Van Slyke and Hartland explore with droll wordplay and bold, folk art-style artwork. Lexie's talents include growing letters into words (a turns to at, cat, and cattle on a tree), tying words together ("She could take a stick of butter and a pesky fly and make a beautiful butterfly"), and storytelling, but someone is causing mischief by mixing up words. "Ain't no fun sleeping out under the rats," grumbles Lexie after star gets jumbled. Luckily for Lexie, the culprit is an apprentice in the making. Luckily for readers, Van Slyke and Hartland deliver linguistic delights on every page. Compound words, anagrams, word chains, puns-is there anything Lexie (and this book) can't do? Ages 5-8. Author's agent: Ammi-Joan Paquette, Erin Murphy Literary. Illustrator's agent: Brenda Bowen, Sanford J. Greenburger Associates. (Apr.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

CHILDREN'S PICTURE BOOKS are called picture books for a reason. The words are vital, of course, and they usually play an equal role, but the pictures pretty much always do the heavy lifting. In books where the words are understated or spare, the pictures are often overstated and elaborate. And then there are the wordless picture books, where the pictures don't even share the spotlight. In these five new picture books, the pictures are back at center stage, but the spotlight is on the words - or play of words. This subtle relationship shift has consequences. As the wordplay gets more complex, the pictures must exert more effort and ingenuity to make sense out of it. The result is uniquely offbeat, and wildly whimsical. Most kids are familiar with the cryptic question: "Why is 6 afraid of 7?" The answer is Tara Lazar's latest title: "7 Ate 9." Lazar has transformed this classic riddle into an improbable whodunit, featuring an all-star cast of large, brightly colored, walking, talking numbers. The pun-laden story, told in the voice of a hard-boiled private eye (played, naturally, by the letter I), involves the attention-seeking number 6 (a.k.a. The Client), who tries to pin a dreadful crime (cannibalism!) on the elusive number 9. Along the way there are supporting roles from Zero (shrewdly posing as an 8), and 11 (never far from 7) and ?, a waitress who serves pi. Yes, pi. If this seems a little complicated, well, it is, but in a stylish, film noir kind of way. Lazar's crisp, well-paced prose, combined with Ross MacDonald's dynamic illustrations, make the story a lot of fun to read, even if you have to backtrack to get your numbers straight. Think of it as a kid-friendly version of "The Maltese Falcon," only with larger than life-size numbers, and no cigarette smoke. In Susan Hood's "Double Take!" a boy, his cat and an elephant wander around the city, acting out the definitions of opposite words. It begins simply enough, with Jay Fleck's expert compositions showing the difference between left and right, asleep and awake. But soon the concept shifts, from basic opposites to explaining what makes an opposite an opposite. Scale, perspective and point of view all come into play. Hood's rhyming prose gradually builds to a scene of a wild roller coaster ride, where she asks the reader to "do a quick double take." Fleck's picture shows the cat tied to a helium balloon, but the cat is above and the balloon is below - a clue that proves that the right-side-up book is now upside down. It's a satisfying highlight to a stimulating book. Rebecca Van Slyke has created a brave young cowgirl/etymologist in "Lexie the Word Wrangler." Lexie lives "west of the Mississippi," where, along with corralling "cantankerous cattle," she can lasso words from thin air. It's a place where trees sprout "baby letters," which grow into multisyllabic words, which are tossed into stew pots and herded into sentences, which eventually become stories. In other words: an ideal location for a writer's retreat. However, all is not hunky-dory in this wordplay utopia. A "word rustler" is on the loose. He has removed the letter D from Lexie's "bandana," turning it - literally - into a "banana." Worse yet, an extra S has transformed the "desert" into a giant "dessert." Lexie must track down this scoundrel and "bring him to justice." Jessie Hartland's artwork is playful and bright, and she does a valiant job integrating the wacky wordplay with the plot. This isn't an edge-of-your-seat western, but the book is packed with puns, twists of words and vintage cowboy dialect kids will enjoy imitating. A similar rascal is at work in Bill Richardson's "The Alphabet Thief." This longnosed, masked bandit is on a nefarious mission, starting with the letter A. Following the logic of "Lexie," when a letter, like B, is stolen, "bowls" become "owls," "brats" are turned into "rats," and a dog named "Bill" becomes "ill." The story is told in brisk, rhyming stanzas, by a determined, redheaded sleuth. The wordplay is fun - a "chair" becomes "hair," a "fox" turns into an "ox" - though some examples are a visual stretch. Throughout, Roxanna Bikadoroff's lively spot illustrations deftly keep pace as the altered words pile up. In the end, the redhead prevails, with a unique weapon; a Y-shaped slingshot that fires Z's. Don't worry, there is no bloodshed. Just swift and punitive sleep. In Ivan Brunetti's "Wordplay," a schoolteacher assigns her class a homework assignment: to create a list of compound words. Somebody suggests "homesick," and a picture shows a sad-faced house with a thermometer in its mouth. "Housefly" is seen as a house with wings. One student, fittingly named Annemarie, becomes obsessed. She looks for compound words everywhere around her, even where they don't exist. Brunetti's use of simple, sequential cartoons turns this basic exercise into a brief, but delightful story. Each of these books, though different in style and sensibility, is designed to spark a curiosity in language. They prove that whether it's chasing after a riddle, stealing alphabet letters or defining an opposite, the picture book is an ideal stage for the play of words. ? JON AGEE is the author and illustrator of many picture books, including "Milo's Hat Trick" and "Terrific," which will both be reissued in September.