Probably the most troublesome part of this book is James's portrayal of the villain, whom he describes as "a halfbreed of Mexican and other blood that's darker." He repeatedly refers to the villain as "the breed." Teachers may want to point out that this book was written in a time before sensitivity to racial issues was widespread and use this as a starting point for a discussion of how sensitive or insensitive American society is to such word choices now.

The rodeo scenes in Smoky may also pose problems for some readers. James never depicts outright maltreatment in any of these scenes; instead he portrays the rodeo as a basically fair contest between man and beast. But one could argue that it is inherently cruel to ride a horse who is not trained to be ridden and who will desperately try to buck a rider off...