Lexie is the best wrangler west of the Mississippi--word wrangler, that is. She watches over baby letters while they grow into words and ties shorter words together into longer ones; she herds words into sentences, hitches sentences together, and pens them all in to tell a story. But lately, something seems off at the ranch. First the d goes missing from her bandana, leaving her with a banana to tie around her neck, and soon afterward every S-T-A-R in the sky turns into R-A-T-S. There's no doubt about it--there's a word rustler causing this ruckus, and Lexie plans to track him down . . . even if it means riding her horse through the sticky icing of a desert that's suddenly become a giant dessert.

This fantastic spin on "cowboy" stories populates Lexie's ranch with lively letters and words, alongside the typical cattle and horses, and stars a smart, confident, charismatic heroine. Rebecca Van Slyke's creative, silly wordplay pairs perfectly with Jessie Hartland's lively illustrations, and there's even a glossary of helpful terms for up-and-coming word wranglers.

This book has been graded for interest at 5-8 years.

There are 40 pages in this book. This book was published 2017 by Penguin Putnam Inc .

Rebecca Van Slyke earned her MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults from Vermont College of Fine Arts. She writes picture books, easy readers, nonfiction, middle grade fiction, and poetry. She is the author of Mom School , Dad School , and Lexie, The Word Wrangler . She is on the advisory committee for the Western Washington SCBWI and leads a writing group in Bellingham, WA. Find her on Facebook or at her website rebeccavanslyke. com. Jessie Hartland has painted murals at a Japanese amusement park, designed Christmas windows for Bloomingdale's, and put her mark on ceramics, watches, and all sorts of other things. She is the author and illustrator many nonfiction titles for young readers, including How the Dinosaur Got to the Museum and Bon Appetit! The Delicious Life of Julia Child. Her collaboration with author Diane Stanley, Ada Lovelace, Poet of Science , was designated an ALA Notable Book, among many other accolades, and her illustrations were praised as "full of wit" by Booklist in a starred review. Jessie lives in New York City.