Kathleen Karr (Children's Literature)
Never will you meet a grungier cowboy. For that matter, never are you likely to meet a mangier dog. This is a truly impressive dirty cowboy tale. Amy Timberlake's first book is based on family lore, and she launches into her story with enthusiasm. This is not your three-words-to-a-page picture book, but more on the order of a short story. Timberlake embellishes the simple plot (cowboy decides he needs bath; cowboy heads for the river; cowboy more or less successfully takes bath) with yucky fleas and smelly adjectives, and a few concise lines of dialogue. Adam Rex--also in his premiere book--takes over from there and gives us a truly raunchy picture of the doings. His cowboy looks like nothing so much as a loony clone of Mad Magazine's ineffable Alfred E. Neuman. And his lice are downright scarifying. On top of which Rex's dawg has to be the most intelligence-challenged canine in the history of children's books. All in all, it's a most curious enterprise between story and art that evolves into the finished work. Parents might have a few personal quibbles (and itches), but one suspects that kids are going to eat up this story. They might even be willing to take a bath. 2003, Farrar Straus Giroux, $16.00. Ages 4 to 8.

Ken Marantz and Sylvia Marantz (Children's Literature)
One day a cowboy decides that he really needs a bath. Accompanied by his faithful dog, he rides to the river with the necessary equipment. Leaving the dog to guard his clothes, he scrubs himself clean. But then, he doesn't smell like himself any more, so the dog won't let him put on his clothes no matter how hard he tries. Finally there is a knock-down drag-out fight, destroying most of his clothes, but with exertion bringing some of the familiar smell back to the cowboy. Clad only in his hat and boots, he can finally lead horse and dog home, hoping for better luck next year. The legend-like, tongue-in-cheek tale is told in a humorous drawl. The textured, naturalistic paintings create a scrawny young cowboy, a properly desolate landscape, and best of all a dog with an unforgettable personality. Because the cowboy is naked for a good part of the story and very active in large and small scenes and sequences, it is a real accomplishment to picture all the events without offending even the most modest sensibilities. Just lots of fun throughout. 2003, Farrar Straus Giroux, $16.00. Ages 4 to 8.

Mary Quattlebaum (Children's Literature)
Kids with bath-time issues (and their soap-wielding parents) will love diving into The Dirty Cowboy. Literally ripe for a washing, a stinky cowpoke sets his dog to guard his clothes and leaps “naked as a newborn pack rat” into a river. In this raucous tall tale with hilarious paintings, the fun begins when the dog refuses to give up the duds to the now-clean dude. This guy smells too sweet to be his cowboy, decides the critter. So man and beast commence to wrestle in the New Mexico dust till the clothes are ripped and the cowboy begrimed ... and the dog, getting a good whiff, finally recognizes his friend. Reconciled, the two mosey home, with the dirty cowboy, “naked as a nickel,” planning next year’s bath. This debut book for author Amy Timberlake and illustrator Adam Rex will make a big splash with kids. 2003, Farrar Straus Giroux, $16.00. Ages 4 up.

Kirkus (Kirkus Reviews, June 15, 2003 (Vol. 71, No. 12))
Deciding, for obscure reasons, that it's time for a bath, a solitary cowboy discovers that being clean can have unexpected complications in this side-splitting double debut. Ordering his dog to guard his clothes, the cowboy bounds into a river with a nearly new bar of lye soap to wash off the reek of black pepper and mesa mud, of wild boar and cow. But the dog doesn't recognize this fresh-smelling stranger, and defends the duds until a knockdown, drag-out brawl leaves the cowboy covered in mud. Unfortunately, this leaves those clothes, except for hat and boots, in shreds. Realistically modeling setting and figures, but keeping the Legion of Decency off his case in numerous artful ways, Rex puts his cowhand, "naked as a nickel," up against a decidedly coyote-ish canine, then sends the two plodding back to their shack beneath an ineffectual rain shower. Inspired by an anecdote passed down in the author's family, this cautionary tale should please all young readers with an aversion to soap and water. 2003, Farrar Straus & Giroux, $16.00. Category: Picture book. Ages 7 to 9. Starred Review. © 2003 Kirkus Reviews/VNU eMedia, Inc. All rights reserved.

Vicki Arkoff (Midwest Book Review, "Vicki's Bookshelf" column, November 2003)
Pee yew! It's dirty, stinkin' work, being a cowboy. When picture book buckaroo in "The Dirty Cowboy" realizes that there are so many buzzing flies circling him that he can't even hear properly, he finally figures it's high time he head to the river to take a bath. Once there, he peels off his duds and tells his trusty dog to guard them against strangers. Trouble with that is that once the cowboy's all cleaned up, his dog doesn't recognize him. The dog takes his task seriously, so two reach a stalemate during negotiations. A wrestling match ensues in a tale that grows taller and taller by the sentence. The mud-slinging climax creates a whirlwind of a scene. First-time author Amy Timberlake does a fabulous job incorporating Western twang to create a terrific tall tale of good clean fun. Recommended for little wranglers and bath-protesters age 4 to 8. 2003, Farrar Straus and Giroux, 32 pages, $16.

Deborah Stevenson (The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, September 2003 (Vol. 57, No. 1))
The titular cowboy is, as the title suggests, dirty, one might even say filthy (“The cowboy’s stench stuck to passersby like mud splashed up from a wagon wheel”), so one day (“No one knows for sure what drives a man to it”) he up and decides to take a bath. After traveling to the closest river, he parks his clothes with his trusty canine companion (“‘Dawg!’ he said. ‘No one touches these clothes but me. Hear?’”) and scrubs himself clean in the water. Unfortunately, the dog is unconvinced that this clean-smelling individual is his cowboy and refuses to yield the clothes, whereupon a battle royale ensues--which leaves the cowboy as dirty as he was in the first place. The text is somewhat long for a readaloud, but readers will revel in the tall-taling, sagebrush-flavored style, the malodorous situation, and the slapstick. The illustrations take the considerable comedy of the text and crank it up several notches: Rex’s slickly highlighted figures have the gleeful grotesquerie of Mad magazine art, with cowboy, his horse, and his dog all bulging-eyed and spindly-legged. The compositions are creative and the scenes are rife with additional details, many highly silly; most likely to provoke guffaws, however, is the combination of the cowboy’s obvious nekkidness with the deliberately coy obscuring, à la Austin Powers, of his least public parts with strategically placed critters, mud, flying articles of clothing, etc. This is a rootin’ tootin’ good read anytime, but it might be particularly well suited to the last day of the camping trip when baths are starting to sound mighty good indeed. Review Code: R* -- Denotes books of special distinction. (c) Copyright 2003, The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois. 2003, Farrar, 32p, $16.00. Grades 3-5.

Horn Book (The Horn Book Guide, Spring 2004)
One morning, a very dirty cowboy decides to take his annual bath. But once he's clean, his faithful dog doesn't recognize his scent and won't relinquish his clothes. Timberlake's twangy storytelling and funny phonetic speech bubbles ("Whoorrugg?" asks the dog) and Rex's sepia-toned illustrations, full of inspired ways to conceal the cowboy's nudity, make for a humorous and original tall tale. Category: Picture Books. 2003, Farrar, 32pp, $16.00. Ages 4 to 9. Rating: 3: Recommended, satisfactory in style, content, and/or illustration.

Virginia Gleaton (The Lorgnette - Heart of Texas Reviews (Vol. 16, No. 3))
This entertaining story starts with a description of the dirty cowboy. The description of his filth is so detailed the reader can almost smell him. He lives out on the range with his only best friends, a horse and a dog. As he prepares to get into the river for a bath, he instructs his dog to guard his clothes and let no one else have them. After the bath, the dog does not recognize him--no smell--and a fight erupts between the cowboy and his dog over ownership of the clothes. The cowboy sweats so much and gets so dirty while trying to retrieve his clothes that the dog finally recognizes him. But it is too late--his clothes are destroyed! He and the dog return to their shack with the cowboy wearing only his boots and hat. Students will find this book funny and entertaining. The dirty cowboy is shown throughout the book with no clothes on; however, he always has the necessary coverage he might need. This book will make a great read-aloud. Fiction. Grades 3-5. 2003, Farrar Straus Giroux, Unpaged., $16.00. Ages 8 to 11.