My granddaughter wasn’t interested in the book,. Cowboy or alien? She didn’t sit still to finish. What more can I say.

**I received and voluntarily read an e-ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.**

The concept is nice, but the execution is definitely lacking.

The text is awkward. It feels as if the story came out of the author and went straight to the printer without hitting an editor's desk. At one point his bandanna is covered in snot, then two pages later he uses the same snot covered bandanna to cover his face from more snot.

As far as the illustrations go, there's something very creepy and off about Jesse's face. I think that it's so overdrawn and detailed compared to most of the other illustrations, Either the aliens need to be developed more, or Jesse needs to be less drawn with less detail- WAY LESS detail needed in his face. The illustrations look as if the aliens/UFO came from one book, and Jesse, Whiskers, and the background came from another.

Overall, it doesn't work. At all.

Book Has an Identity Crisis

I choose books to review from various sites on the internet like NetGalley and Booksprout. Sometimes I choose a book well in advance of when I will actually review it. I like my reading of a book I'm going to review to be “pure,” so I don't reread book descriptions or other people's reviews before I read the book. So when I finished this book and went to leave my review of it, I was surprised to see that the author or the publisher considers this book to be a counting book. That's not the takeaway I had from it. Yes, numbers are mentioned in order up to 10, but that doesn't make it a counting book necessarily. In fact, I wonder if children we'll get that this is what the book is supposed to be. The story itself seemed odd as well. It's like the author couldn't decide whether she wanted a cowboy book or an alien book, and she opted to do a mashup of the two. Unfortunately, she could not make this a happy marriage. Even the illustrations were different depending on who was on the page. Pages with Jesse come across as very realistic (at times nearly photographic of Jesse himself) with a warm, limited color palette while the alien pages come across as cartoonish and somewhat garish in comparison. And there's certainly an ick factor, which parents may not appreciate but kids perhaps will. The aliens slobber, drip snot, and burp. This is mentioned repeatedly. I feel like this book needed more shaping and refinement, both in the story itself and with the illustrations. If you're looking for a fiction book to help a child cement their counting abilities, there are undoubtedly better ones out there.

Cowboy Jesse is a vivid illustrated picture book. What is more fun than counting purple aliens, counting with Cowboy Jesse of course. A appealing cowboy with adventure for new things. Who would of thunk that cowboys and aliens go together!

Reading and counting goes together just like cowboys and aliens.

A special thank you to Doodle and Peck Publishing and Netgalley for the ARC and the opportunity to post an honest review.

I appreciate the efforts that have been put in this picture book.

However, I feel the contents are still raw and I feel the colours are too loud.

I like the concept of how kids play at home dressed up as someone they imagine to be as in this story the kid dressing up as a cowboy and trying to tackle aliens which seemingly landed in the yard and supposedly tried to abduct things.

I would have enjoyed the book more with more polished illustrations and a new story concept rather than an overly written concept and scenarios.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC.

The book mainly for about kids who could read fairly well because there were some pretty big words. It was geared to teach them to count from 1-10 but the words were all too hard for just 1-10 counting. The art graphics and using a cowboy with aliens was unique and fun and the snotty blubbering was funny!! There’s certainly a lot of the book that is great, but I just think if the wording choices could have been better reviewed or what age group for a boy on a stick horse are you gearing the book for and are you wanting them to read it as well!
Overall I loved the book!

A slightly confusing book about boys playing cowboys and snot dripping aliens of different mediums.

This story attempts to combine a boy playing cowboy (with western gear and language). Slimy aliens landing on earth are interspersed within. I did not care for the story, but ids might enjoy the silly snot and burp references.

For example, one page states “Jesse wiped the slobber with his bandana and hot-booted it over to Lookout Rock.” Another says, “Their dripping noses drizzled snot.” This is simply a 52-page snot fest.

It also appeared that the author couldn’t decide between genres: western or science fiction. While they can be combined, the way it was done here was clunky. I would like to say that the book is redeemed by the illustrations, but it is not. Similarly, Jesse is drawn with almost photographic precision while the aliens are crude, child-like figures.

Being honest, however, I must add that kids would probably squeal with laughter at the over and over use of gross bodily functions.


I received an ARC from Doodle & Peck Publishers through NetGalley. This in no way affects my opinion or rating of this book. I am voluntarily submitting this review and am under no obligation to do so.

This is a cute story with beautiful illustrations that will draw the child into the story. This book makes it fun for a child to learn to count. Thank you Doodle and Peck Publishing via NetGalley for the ARC copy of this book. All opinions expressed are my own.

Lovely illustrations. Cute story, thanks for letting me read this to my daughter and review it. The illustrations are really well done.

Cowboy Jesse is a easy to read Children's adventure, they also helps with counting. Cowboy Jesse along with his faithful companion Whisker's are trying to hide from Aliens. At first there is 1 Alien, then when they change hiding spots there are 2, and so one through out the book. This is a fun short book. The Illustrations really drag the kids into the story. I love that it is also educational but in a very fun way.

I have the Grand Kids this week so will be posting a few Children's book reviews over the next few days.

I received this book from the Author or Publisher via Netgalley.com and chose to leave this review.

I didn’t love this book. I thought the illustrations were a little too dated and didn’t match a book about aliens. I liked that there was counting as the educational piece but overall, it wasn’t a win for me.

<p>Cowboy Jesse is a simple counting book with a bonus story of little boy’s encounter with aliens. The hide and seek adventure playfully adds aliens to the game. It’s cute, fun, and the perfect quirky title to add to a little one’s library.</p>
<p>I’d give this book a solid four stars based on the illustrations alone. The images were bright, colorful, and simple. The pictures enhanced the simple meeting of strangers (even odd ones) that became friends. </p>
<p>I received a copy of <u>Cowboy Jesse</u> by <b>Nancy Kelly Allen</b> from <i>Doodle and Peck Publishing</i> via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.</p>

Cowboy Jesse discovers aliens in his backyard. He does everything he can to keep him and his dog safe. For me, this story was ok. It kind of seemed like it wanted to do too much. It included counting, which was a good idea. However, the way the story flows doesn't work well with making the counting obvious to children. I couldn't decide if I liked the illustrations or not. The art work seemed different- jesse, his dog, and backyard seemed to differ from the aliens and spaceships. On one hand, I liked how it represented different worlds. But on the other hand, it just didn't look that great to me.

It was cute, and fun for counting. I didn’t care for the I.lustrations, it the story was cute. Very cowboys vs aliens.

I requested and received an e-ARC from Nancy Kelly Allen and Doodle and Peck Publishing through NetGalley in exchange for my honest opinion.

I liked this book. Jesse is playing in his yard when an alien ship shows up and the counting of all the aliens begins. This is an interesting counting book with weird and wacky descriptive words for the aliens.

Cute story. I was curious about what was going to happen when Jesse got into the spaceship. What happens later is fun too. Has both numbers in an increasing fashion as well all scene locations repeated. Fun for kids to do these kind of things in reading.

I loved the story, but I am not sure how I feel about the illustrations.
As a child, I always imagined aliens would be nice, the younglings at least, would wanna be my friends. The story here was positive too, which was great.
The aliens looked cute too - the visuals were too busy, that's all .

Jesse is playing cowboy when some aliens visit his backyard. It is a counting story on what he does. Illustrations are funny.

Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for the eARC.