Book: On the Busy Old Ranch

Written by Katelyn Toney, Illustrated by Rebecca Allen
Published by Bluestem Books
Review by Shelley A. Leedahl

Katelyn Toney lives the hectic farmer/rancher lifestyle near Tompkins in southwest Saskatchewan with her husband and four children, and when she noted a lack of children’s books that depict the family’s unique way of life, she wrote one. The illustrated board book, On the Busy Old Ranch, is a 1-10 counting book with full-bleed illustrations by Rebecca Allen, rhyming stanzas, and child-friendly but apt portrayals of diverse ranch families’ chore-filled daily life.

In a CTV Regina television interview, Toney said she’d been reading to her kids “every day for the past 15 years,” and noted that there were “not a lot of books showcasing the life we live out here raising cattle on the prairies”. She said that there are many farm and rodeo-themed kids’ books, but what she found “really didn’t depict the lifestyle” she and her family experience.

The first page spread sets the book’s tone and two-stanza, rhyming style:

On the busy old ranch
by the barn in the sun
worked a big mama cowgirl
and her little cowgirl one.

“Feed,” said the mama.
“I feed,” said the one.
So they both fed the horses
by the barn in the sun.

Allen’s colourful, light-hearted illustrations reveal a large-eyed mother and daughter, both with red braids, forking hay and feeding the smiling horse, while another horse munches grass against a backdrop of prairie sky and a tall red barn. The subsequent pages all begin with “On the busy old ranch,” and include “an old papa cowboy,” “the ranchhand lady,” “the silly auntie cowgirl” and “some kindly neighbours/and some little cowkids ten”. I was pleased to see the illustrator’s inclusion of solar power for heating water and the multi-ethnic cast of characters. Details like an old boot slung on a fencepost, a grasshopper, and tumbleweeds caught in barbed wire are familiar sights to this prairie-born and raised reviewer.

Toney’s lively text reveals the many daily responsibilities on the ranch—like fixing water bowls, loading cattle into a trailer “through the liner’s rolling door,” and pounding nails into barbed wire fencing—but there are also pages dedicated to rest (all characters and the family dog are shown sleeping on the grass beneath a gold-leafed tree); fun (swinging on the “old rusty gate”), and prayer “And they all prayed for rain/under clouds that reached to heaven”. In the cute illustration for the latter, even the gopher has its hands clasped in prayer.

During the CTV interview, Toney said the book is “a love story” to the people involved in farmer/ranching, and to the lifestyle itself. Her website adds that the story is “perfect for rural kids who want to read a story familiar with their way of life, as well as kids who would like to learn about life on a ranch”.

The small and sturdy hardcover is ideal for little hands—and beginning counters—and includes a plug for bedtime reading. To learn more about Toney and her first book—I’m certain there are more tales to come—see www.KatelynToney.ca.

THIS BOOK IS AVAILABLE AT YOUR LOCAL BOOKSTORE OR FROM WWW.SKBOOKS.COM.