On the Pecos Trail

In the character of Fish Rawlings, Dearen seems to have combined the youthful exuberance of Samuel Clemens' Huckleberry Finn with the adventurous independence of Rowdy Yates (a young Clint Eastwood) from the old popular television series "Rawhide." . . . For today's young readers who did not grow up with those television western series that starred young men like "Wagon Train's" Barnaby West, "Rawhide's" Rowdy Yates, and "The High Chapparal's" Blue Cannon, the Lone Star Heroes Series helps fill the gap. -- REVIEW OF TEXAS BOOKS, SUMMER 2002.

It is 1868, and eleven-year-old Fish Rawlings and his cousin Gid are saddling up to go on a cattle drive as far as the Horsehead Crossing on the Pecos River. There Fish will set up a grave stone for his father who was killed on a previous cattle drive. A book for young readers [ages 8-13] that confronts the issue of death. Highly recommended.

I liked all three very much. I liked the third book, The Hidden Treasure of Chisos the most and I liked the second book, On the Pecos Trail and the first book, Comanche Peace Pipe the same. The only thing that I did not like about the whole series was the author said too much about Fish's father dying in On the Pecos Trail. But that is actually good because kids need to learn to cope when their parents get divorced or when one or both of their parents dies