Cowboy Charlie – children’s books by Blanca Robson

From the twelfth floor to the ranch: children’s books by Blanca Robson.

Book 1 is out in English for read-aloud from age 4. Book 2 is so far available in German. Paperback and hardcover on Amazon.

The books

Cover of the English edition

A Boy Who Dreams Himself Free

Book 1 in English · 2025 · 21 chapters, 204 pages

Here comes a hero with a hat and a big heart. Charlie lives on the twelfth floor of a grey high-rise. Friends? None. Adventures? Only in his head. When he puts on his newspaper cowboy hat, the cramped flat becomes a wide prairie.

Then a letter arrives that smells of horses. Dad gets a job as caretaker at the Donnerfeld stud farm, and the city boy becomes Cowboy Charlie. A warmhearted story about courage, friendship and believing in yourself. It is never about guns or fighting, and it ends happily, with no scary moments.

Paperback Hardcover
Cover of Book 2

Das goldene Herbstlicht

Book 2, German only · 2026 · 19 chapters, 223 pages · ages 6–12

A golden autumn on the Donnerfeld ranch: Charlie’s first day at the village school in Sattelbach, a horse without a name, a missing pumpkin and smoke over the farm. At the ranch fair, the country singer Ryan Robson comes to play. Available in German.

Paperback Hardcover

Read a sample

High-Rise with a View of the Clouds

Book 1, from the first chapter

Sometimes Charlie imagined the high-rise was a giant tower in the middle of the desert. A lonely watchtower where cowboys kept lookout for bandits passing by. Then he wasn’t just an ordinary boy anymore. Then he was Cowboy Charlie, guardian of the prairie—braver than a puma, faster than the wind, with a stare that could send shivers down any outlaw’s spine.

In reality, though, the high-rise was just gray. Old, ugly, and in the hallways it smelled of stale cigarette smoke, sour cleaning fluid, and sometimes wet dog. Fourteen stories it reached into the sky, like a huge finger of concrete shaking its fist at the clouds.

Charlie often sat on the wide windowsill in the kitchen. It was his secret favorite spot. While the radio hummed softly in the background, he gazed out—and into his imagination.

Outside, clouds drifted past, but in Charlie’s mind they became the dust stirred up by a galloping herd of horses. Cars turned into stagecoaches. Cranes became the silhouettes of faraway canyons. The street below was a wide prairie.

He had built a pony out of cardboard. It wasn’t very pretty—but to Charlie, it was the fastest pony west of the kitchen counter.

Who lives on the ranch

  • Officially Cowboy Charlie Thunderboots. Almost always wears his cowboy hat, except when sleeping, mostly. Keeps a notebook full of cowboy rules he made up himself. He used to live in the grey city; now his home is the ranch.
  • Brown, shaggy, with a white blaze. Tests every new rider, loves blackberries (purple lips included), and his snort usually means: “Fine, but only because it’s you.”
  • Charlie found him shivering in an abandoned shed by the old station and named him after the dust of the prairie. Sleeps on Charlie’s feet and jumps into every pond.
  • Mrs Donnerfeld’s niece: two blond pigtails, more freckles than anyone can count and the energy of three wind turbines. Charlie’s best friend, though she prefers the title “Sheriff”.
  • She runs the Donnerfeld stud farm, and everyone knows it, the hens included. Strict and warm at once, with a quiet smile for the children’s adventures. She would never admit it.
  • Mends the fences, tames the hose and turns up at exactly the right moment. He still calls Charlie “Cowboy”, even when he is knee-deep in mud.
  • Ears like little sails and the occasional belief that he is a chicken. Still the best tracker on the ranch when hens or biscuits go missing.
  • Big and black without a single pale spot. He stays at the edge of the paddock and doesn’t trust everyone straight away. With him, Charlie learns that trust doesn’t grow faster just because you are impatient.
  • A country singer who comes to the ranch fair in the golden autumn light, with a guitar case and real dust on his boots. Is the name Robson a coincidence? That stays a family secret.

Charlie’s Cowboy Rules

Charlie writes down what he learns on the ranch in his cowboy book. Draw one of them here. The rest are in the books.

A real cowboy never gives up—even if the world is just a gray high-rise.

Cowboy Rule No. 1 from Book 1

About Blanca Robson

Portrait of Blanca Robson

Blanca Robson writes the Cowboy Charlie children’s books: stories about a quiet boy who finds his place, between the paddock, the village school and a notebook full of rules he made up himself.

Her books are never about guns or fighting, but about kindness, helpfulness, self-confidence and the courage to do the right thing. The language is light and humorous, the rhythm calm: for bedtime reading and for first pages read alone.

On Backroad Country Radio she talks about books in the Backroad Bücherecke, in German. And is the country singer Ryan Robson, who plays at the Donnerfeld ranch in Book 2, related to her? That stays a family secret.

Blanca Robson

Author of Cowboy Charlie

Charlie, Jette, Muffin and the dogs outside the Donnerfeld ranch at sunset.

Blanca on the radio

Twice a day Backroad Country Radio plays the Backroad Bücherecke, where Blanca Robson talks about books in German. The station is on air around the clock.

Listen to Backroad Country Radio