Jess and the Stinky Cowboys

by Janice Lee Smith, Lisa Thiesing (Illustrations)

Dry Gulch becomes the smelliest town in the West when a posse of stinky cowboys arrive and refuse to take baths. Things get so bad, even the stinkbugs leave.

No baths today! No baths tomorrow! No baths ever! roar the funky cowpokes.

And pretty soon all of Dry Gulch is up in arms—while holding their noses!

Luckily, Deputy Jess and her aunt Gussie are determined to make the No Stink Law stick. With a clever plan, and a little soap, can they solve the P.U. problem?

Kids will cheer for both the cowboys and the plucky deputy in this bath-time laugh-time story.

48 pages, Hardcover

First published March 30, 2004

About the author

She lives and plays in Colorado with her husband, Jim, and their dogs Rosie and Bailey.

Honors/Awards:
Bread Loaf Writer's Conference scholarship, 1981, and fellowship, 1982
Named among the Outstanding Young Women of America, 1981
Indiana Arts Commission/National Endowment for the Arts master arts fellowship grant, 1984, for The Show-and-Tell War, and for The Kid Next Door and Other Headaches: Stories about Adam Joshua
The Kid Next Door and Other Headaches was selected an International Reading Association Children's Choice, 1985
Addi Award, 1987, for advertising booklet

Reviews

[Heather Gunnell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Staff Pick
Heather

What's a deputy to do when a group of stinky cowboys comes to town and they refuse every offer of a bath? They smell so bad that they stink up the whole town. Check it out today to see how Jess and Gussy clean up the stink!

[Cheryl · Rating 1 out of 5]

I'm sorry for the low rating. There's nothing objectively horrible about this. But GR says 2 stars means it's ok, and neither adult me nor my inner child enjoyed this at all. Just doesn't suit our sense of the ridiculous or of satire, so, not funny.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Humor is always fun when you are learning to read, and the stinky cowboys who wont take a bath is both funny and familiar to kids who've been told they need a bath whether they want one or not.