Don’t let the title fool you: Classic Western Stories (compiled by Cooper Edens) is actually a collection of poetry and folk songs with a few pieces of prose thrown in for good measure. Of the more than seventy-five pieces collected in the book, over fifty are verse; the remaining pieces are folk tales, tall tales, and excerpts from short stories. The subject matter in this collection stretches from the traditional “cowboys and Indians” fare to more complex examinations of the environment; the only real commonality in all of the pieces is the western theme, which runs like a river through every page. Each piece in the collection is coupled with a vintage illustration, which makes for an engaging, multimedia reading experience; the only thing missing from this book is an audio CD with the (requisite) accompanying music!

Classic Western Stories includes a wide variety of classic folk songs (ranging from Montross’s “Clementine” to Emmett’s “Old Dan Tucker”), as well as more modern folk tunes (“Rocky Raccoon” by The Beatles and “The Cat’s in the Cradle” by Harry Chapin). Of course, the definitive folk song, Woody Guthrie’s “This Land is Your Land,” is a centerpiece of the book, complete with a breathtaking wilderness painting. Because Classic Western Stories relies so heavily on folk songs, it seems like the book is tailor-made for a children’s sing-along: I can easily envision a small group of children circled around a campfire with copies of this book in hand, while adults strum their guitars and sing along to these classic pieces.

Of course, western stories have gone the way of the buffalo: the wilderness may be as foreign to today’s children as outer space. However, the beautifully-illustrated text of Classic Western Stories might be able to resurrect this ancient era for today’s suburban children. With the popularity of Woody from Toy Story or Disneyland’s “Frontier Land,” the classic concept of “western stories” has a hope for long-term sustenance; a collection like Edens’s Classic Western Stories might help prolong the life of these classic songs and poems.

Citation:
Edens, Cooper. Classic Western Stories: The Most Beloved Stories. San Francisco: Chronicle, 2009. Print. ( )