Buckaroo — Betty Traylor

After the death of his mother, 11-year-old Preston Davis, a.k.a. Buckaroo, gets packed off to live in Cotton Patch, Arkansas, with his great-aunt. He doesn't know what's worst: Aunt Eugenia and her flamboyant ways, missing his mother something fierce, feeling resentful that his newly remarried father doesn't want him around, or being forced to rake leaves with Ivy Johnson, a black girl. One thing's for sure: Cotton Patch isn't home. And Buckaroo figures it never will be if he's seen with Ivy. The town may have whites and blacks, but it's 1958, segregation is the norm, and no way does Buckaroo want to alienate his few friends by socializing with black folks. Still, Buckaroo does what Aunt Eugenia says; he rakes leaves with Ivy, and confronts prejudice head-on. Friendships, he discovers, are forged and tested in unusual ways, and ugliness exists in us all. As Buckaroo deals with his many conflicting feelings, he tries to imagine what Roy Rogers, his favorite TV cowboy hero, would do. Ultimately Buckaroo finds the hero within himself.