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A review by leecalliope
Ghetto Cowboy by G. Neri
4.0
This book is charming and sweet and a fun read. The narrative arc is extremely typical for a horse book - troubled boy sent away from home, meets a troubled horse + they fall in love + the horse teaches him how to deal with his issues. However, in this case our protagonist, Cole, is sent away from Detroit by his mother to Philadelphia, to live with his father he's never met. The horses being a part of this very urban landscape is very exciting to me. Obviously Philly is a pretty good city for horses, and I am very interested in the real-world inspiration for the setting. There are some sources in the author's note at the end that I'm excited to look into.
Beyond that, it's just a nice book. It's always nice to read a book written in a dialect that isn't historical. I think it's much easier to read and makes the characters feel more alive. Cole is a typical Troubled Kid, who wants to be good, but isn't trying quite hard enough. I enjoyed his growth as he extended the circle of people he cared about from himself and his mother to include the horse, his father, and then all the members of his community. It's nice to read these stories where things work out well in the end.
The primary tension in this story is between the community of cowboys in the neighborhood, and the city government of Philadelphia, who wants to take and develop the land they've been keeping the horses on. I've been reading a lot of books recently whose premise is "what if the cops were good actually," and it is refreshing to have a book dealing with the fact that they are not.
The one thing that gave me some pause is Cole's relationship with his mother. It's depicted well in the beginning, with Cole telling us that he feels bad for letting his mother down, and that he doesn't want to stress her out, but he's a [pre?-]teen + has his own stuff going on. His love for his mother balances well with his general moodiness. I don't entirely understand his mother's character, though. What follows is a spoiler for the first, like, ten pages maybe. Her primary action in the story is to pick Cole up from school and drive him from Detroit to Philly overnight, where she leaves him at the door to his father's house, forever, she says. The story is obviously predicated on this being the right thing for Cole, and that's believable to me, but I don't really think the book deals quite enough with the trauma of being completely abandoned by one's mother. Maybe it is just the trope of parents in kids books being largely absent so that the kids can have adventures, but for a book so focused on Cole's relationship with his father, it felt strange. Actual spoilers below:
At the end of the book, his mother shows up again, says she's made a mistake, and they agree to a joint-custody arrangement. I'm not opposed to this resolution in theory, but her character is just so sparse, that I don't know what I'm supposed to take away from her change of heart. She says she's started seeing a therapist, which is good, but?? I think it is good and makes sense that she was overwhelmed with the pressures of being a single mom; I enjoyed Cole's journey away from her; the opportunity that it gave Harper to have a relationship with his son is an enjoyable read. I just don't really understand why she had to try to abandon him forever in order for it to happen. I definitely could be missing something abt the psychology at play, but it gave the whole story a much heavier tone than if she'd dropped him off for the summer, and the abrupt reversal at the end came out of nowhere. I think the story can work as it is, but we need to know anything about his mother's character.
Anyway, though, this was a very fun, light book. I enjoyed it a lot; it went very quickly. I'm very interested these days in the utilitarian use of language in middle grade fiction, and this book is a good example of that. I obviously love a book set in Philly. 0 gay characters, but there was also no romance of any kind, which I appreciated. This is a very straight up-and-down ya novel, but with black cowboys in the city. A+.
Beyond that, it's just a nice book. It's always nice to read a book written in a dialect that isn't historical. I think it's much easier to read and makes the characters feel more alive. Cole is a typical Troubled Kid, who wants to be good, but isn't trying quite hard enough. I enjoyed his growth as he extended the circle of people he cared about from himself and his mother to include the horse, his father, and then all the members of his community. It's nice to read these stories where things work out well in the end.
The primary tension in this story is between the community of cowboys in the neighborhood, and the city government of Philadelphia, who wants to take and develop the land they've been keeping the horses on. I've been reading a lot of books recently whose premise is "what if the cops were good actually," and it is refreshing to have a book dealing with the fact that they are not.
The one thing that gave me some pause is Cole's relationship with his mother. It's depicted well in the beginning, with Cole telling us that he feels bad for letting his mother down, and that he doesn't want to stress her out, but he's a [pre?-]teen + has his own stuff going on. His love for his mother balances well with his general moodiness. I don't entirely understand his mother's character, though. What follows is a spoiler for the first, like, ten pages maybe. Her primary action in the story is to pick Cole up from school and drive him from Detroit to Philly overnight, where she leaves him at the door to his father's house, forever, she says. The story is obviously predicated on this being the right thing for Cole, and that's believable to me, but I don't really think the book deals quite enough with the trauma of being completely abandoned by one's mother. Maybe it is just the trope of parents in kids books being largely absent so that the kids can have adventures, but for a book so focused on Cole's relationship with his father, it felt strange. Actual spoilers below:
At the end of the book, his mother shows up again, says she's made a mistake, and they agree to a joint-custody arrangement. I'm not opposed to this resolution in theory, but her character is just so sparse, that I don't know what I'm supposed to take away from her change of heart. She says she's started seeing a therapist, which is good, but?? I think it is good and makes sense that she was overwhelmed with the pressures of being a single mom; I enjoyed Cole's journey away from her; the opportunity that it gave Harper to have a relationship with his son is an enjoyable read. I just don't really understand why she had to try to abandon him forever in order for it to happen. I definitely could be missing something abt the psychology at play, but it gave the whole story a much heavier tone than if she'd dropped him off for the summer, and the abrupt reversal at the end came out of nowhere. I think the story can work as it is, but we need to know anything about his mother's character.
Anyway, though, this was a very fun, light book. I enjoyed it a lot; it went very quickly. I'm very interested these days in the utilitarian use of language in middle grade fiction, and this book is a good example of that. I obviously love a book set in Philly. 0 gay characters, but there was also no romance of any kind, which I appreciated. This is a very straight up-and-down ya novel, but with black cowboys in the city. A+.