Mule Train Mail - Craig Brown

Illustrated by the author

2009 Charlesbridge

32 pages

HC $16.95 TPPL

Goodreads rating: 3.20

My rating: 3

Author's Note:  two informative pages at the end.

Endpapers:  FRONT:  birds-eye-map-type view of the Grand Canyon

BACK:  illustrations of the mailman/cowboy, his dog, and six mules

Illustrations:  pastel and colored pencils all the way to the edges, no white.  LOTS of brown, gives the sense of desert and sand, sand, sand....

1^st line:  "Anthony the Postman doesn't wear a uniform.  He wears a cowboy hat, chaps, and spurs.  Anthony doesn't drive a mail truck.  he drives a mule train.  He picks up the mail at the south rim of the Grand Canyon."

My Goodreads notes: This book is very simple and suited for younger children. I'm not sure how I want to say this, but it just wasn't .... exciting ... in any way. Although I enjoyed the illustrations, they were all similar to each other, nothing different or surprising. I plan to read it aloud during my Arizona unit, as a starting place for research into the Grand Canyon. I like the information in the author's note at the end.

Goodreads summary: "Mule Train Mail introduces readers to Anthony Paya, wearing a cowboy hat, chaps, and spurs, who leads a train of ten mules on a daily 3-hour trek down into the Grand Canyon to bring mail to the townspeople of Supai."