Paws McDraw: The Fastest Doodler in the West

PreS-Gr 2—Brecon depicts the eponymous character's John Wayne-esque artistic exploits in a colorful desert community. Paws McDraw uses his trusty pencil to draw bridges under ill-fated trains, conjure a fire brigade to douse a church fire, and sketch a bucket to retrieve a bunny from a well. His adventures culminate in a showdown with the Rascally Raccoon Gang in which, with a little imagination and help from the town of cupcake-loving bunnies, Paws McDraw is able to save the day. The narrative makes use of sequential art and depicts past events in black-and-white comic strips. The smaller frames of artwork within the story are punctuated by spreads of art showing dynamic motion that threatens to explode off the page. Short bursts of text seem to bounce along, using familiar Western tropes and fun vocabulary in the characters' speech bubbles and conspiratorial asides from the narrator. This is reminiscent of Crockett Johnson's Harold and the Purple Crayon but rendered in the style of Bob Shea.