James Rice 
Cowboy Night Before Christmas 

Award-winning author/illustrator James Rice’s picture book Cowboy Night Before Christmas sets the classic holiday story in the southwest.   “’Twas a cold Christmas eve on the Southwestern plain, ” and two lonely cowboys are shivering from the cold. A knock at the door of their sod shanty rouses them, and they admit a fat little old man with frost on his whiskers and hat.   The old man had been moving a load across the country when his team fled north to escape the panhandle cold. Now he must find a new team to help him finish his rounds.   In this twist on the classic tale, the two cowboys help the mysterious man round up eight replacement longhorns. Together they hitch the cattle up to the odd gent’s wagon and see him on his way. The two cowboys trudge back to their shanty, where they discover the gifts the stranger has left them.  Cowboy Night Before Christmas features whimsical illustrations from James Rice, widely acclaimed as one of the leading author/illustrators of American juvenile fiction. His fifty-plus children’s titles total more than a million and a half copies in print; and his Cajun Night Before Christmas has become a seasonal classic.   Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!