The Outlaw

Vo provides readers with a Western in picture book form that upends many of the genre's gunslinging shootout and revenge narrative tropes. A small (unnamed) frontier town is threatened by an "Outlaw" known for his "trail of misdeeds"; much to the townspeople's relief, he then vanishes and over time is forgotten. Many seasons pass, and a stranger arrives who quietly begins rebuilding the now-battered town: making a new water trough, mending a roof, repairing a train platform. When someone recognizes him as the Outlaw, he is set upon by an angry mob. A young thief (who we've seen in the illustrations being protected and rehabilitated by the Outlaw) steps forward in support of the man ("Leave him alone! He's trying"), convincing some townsfolk, but not others. Nonetheless, the Outlaw is permitted to stay and make amends, and as Vo states on a final spread, "maybe that was what mattered in the end." The ink and largely gray scale watercolor illustrations, along with an intriguing newspaper transfer technique, pair well with the spare, contemplative text.—Henrietta Verma