Review: "Cowgirl Megan" by Trisha Magraw

Cowgirl Megan by Trisha Magraw
Published 1998
★★★

I don't plan to reread a whole lot of this series, so I'm picking and choosing. Cowgirl Megan> has, I think, the strongest nostalgia vibes of any of the series for me—not so much the book itself, but that cover. Or, more accurately, that jacket—I remember so vividly how cool I thought a white leather fringed jacket studded with jewels was. Also, now that I think about it, the version of Megan on the cover is pretty much a dead ringer for the American Girl doll I had around the same time.

Unlike the contents of the other books of this series I've dipped into as an adult, this book also rings some other bells. Here, Megan is feeling slighted by her friends—who are, it must be said, astonishingly quick to cut Megan down to size when she displays the barest amount of ambition (more on that in a moment)—when she heads up into the attic to escape reality for a bit. When she slips through the fabric of reality, she finds herself in the Wild West...with a girl whose dream of showing her prowess in the competition ring is being thwarted by circumstances outside her control. It's up to Megan to help her come up with a plan—and in the process learn to speak up for herself.

Because the girls tend to adventure independently in this series, we actually see very little of their friendship—they're eager to ask each other where the mirror in the attic has taken them, and to sit together at lunch, but the books are short and so their time together is limited. But okay: let's trust that they're the best and most supportive of friends (most of the time). The other girls eventually (it's a feel-good children's/early MG book, after all) apologize to Megan and concede that having dreams makes sense. Good for them, and good for Megan for standing up for herself. What does it say about perceptions of female friendship, though, that they are so quick to encourage Megan to make herself smaller? I wonder what a contemporary book would do with this.