“An author attempt­ing a biog­ra­phy of William Cody steps into a mine­field of chal­lenges: mak­ing calls on cul­tur­al nomen­cla­ture and ter­mi­nol­o­gy; nuanc­ing the Cody family’s anti-slav­ery and anti-abo­li­tion stance in Bleed­ing Kansas; rec­on­cil­ing Cody the Indi­an fight­er with Cody the defend­er of Native tra­di­tions; and assess­ing the reli­a­bil­i­ty of pri­ma­ry sources for a show­man who depend­ed on hyped pro­mo­tion. Flem­ing art­ful­ly address­es the prob­lems head-on, first with an open­ing note that clar­i­fies her spe­cif­ic choice of ter­mi­nol­o­gy (trib­al, when pos­si­ble; “Native” vari­a­tions when gen­er­al; “Indi­an” vari­a­tions when his­tor­i­cal). Then the three-part struc­ture of the biog­ra­phy itself sorts oth­er issues into con­text. Each chap­ter opens with an ital­i­cized scene from Cody’s Wild West Show, steep­ing read­ers in the glam­or, nov­el­ty, and thrills, and giv­ing free rein to Cody’s sto­ry as he might have approved it, tem­pered with a few asides that call that account gen­tly into ques­tion. The heavy lift­ing of exam­in­ing source author­i­ty and view­ing Cody in the con­text of his own time and ours is han­dled in boxed inserts titled “Pan­ning for the Truth.” These side­bars are by no means com­pre­hen­sive in dis­cussing every ques­tion­able point in Cody’s career, but they appear often enough to put the brakes on an excit­ing sto­ry and remind read­ers that much of Buf­fa­lo Bill’s myth is as decep­tive as his clev­er­ly paint­ed back­drops. Fans of Fleming’s The Fam­i­ly Romanov may mar­vel at the abrupt bounce from Russ­ian Rev­o­lu­tion to Wild West, but those who appre­ci­ate her autho­r­i­al crafts­man­ship will rec­og­nize that she makes each of these great sto­ries a win­dow into count­less oth­ers. Bib­li­og­ra­phy, notes, and index and peri­od illus­tra­tions are includ­ed.” (Bul­letin of the Cen­ter for Chil­dren’s Books, starred review)