The Littlest Wrangler
Moonlight Mesa Associates - March, 2010In the spring of 1882, 10-year-old Joe Monday heads west from New York on an "orphan train" with two dreams in mind: he wants a family, and he wants to be a cowboy. The first misfires as Joe's placed with a pair of pig farmers who only want the free labor he provides. He skedaddles in search of the second and finagles a lowly job with a cattle company heading up the Chisholm Trail. The cowboys are skeptical of their young tag-along, but when a fierce storm stampedes the herd Joe seizes the chance both to win his spurs and to find his family at last.
"A thoroughly engaging and fast-paced adventure tale - a charming page-turner of a story."
Nancy Plain, Spur Award winning children's author (Sagebrush and Paintbrush: the Story of Charlie Russell, the Cowboy Artist and With One Sky Above Us: The Story of Chief Joseph and the Nez Perce Indians)
"Sanders has not only written a wonderful story, but he has reopened the Big Book of the American Cowboy for a whole new generation of children to enjoy."
Don Edwards, Grammy-nominated cowboy balladeer, musicologist, historian, and author
Instructional Materials for
The Littlest Wrangler
Please feel free to reproduce these activities for classroom use.
Requires Adobe Reader
Crossword Puzzle
Crossword Puzzle - key
Word Search
Word Search - key
Quiz
Quiz - key
Discussion Questions
Saddle - Parts
Saddle - Designs
Design a Saddle!
"Code of the West"
Are you a movie or television producer interested in this story
as a film or television movie? View J.R.'s screen version,
Little Joe, the Wrangler, at
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Oak Glen and Los Rios Rancho
Arcadia Publishing - August, 2006
Los Rios Rancho has operated through a greater century as the largest apple orchard in Southern California and the centerpiece of Oak Glen, the heart of a dozen orchards on the southern slopes of the San Bernardino Range about eight miles from Yucaipa. Los Rios Rancho is owned by the Wildlands Conservancy, a nonprofit public benefit corporation headquartered at Oak Glen since 1996 that has purchased more than 750,000 California acres to preserve as natural landscapes for public benefit. The ranch is leased today to the Devon Riley family, which carries on in the tradition of the ranch's founder, H. L. Rivers. The Rivers family - la familia de los Rios - has been a fruit label name known throughout California grocery stores and roadside stands since before World War I. In this collection, more than 180 vintage photographs pay tribute to the Rivers, Wilshire, and other family orchards at Oak Glen over the years.
"An extra treat for anyone contemplating a visit to Oak Glen." The San Bernardino Sun