An engaging horse tale with a lot of heart.
A young girl wants a horse more than anything, but when she finally gets one, she gets more than she bargained for in Count’s debut middle-grade novel.
Soon after Selah arrives for the summer at her grandfather’s Texas farm, she starts pestering her grandfather for a horse, telling him how much she loves the animals and arguing, “The farm’s too quiet, Grandpa. A horse farm should be alive with horses!” She gets nowhere with that argument, but then she spots a horse running around the meadow beyond the farm. Together, Selah and her grandfather soon set out to find it again, as they believe it’s a black filly that disappeared a few years ago. Selah finds the horse, which now has injured its leg in coiled wire. By the time she and her grandfather free it, Selah is convinced that the horse was sent to her on purpose. It turns out to be the last foal of Harmony, Selah’s grandmother Mary’s horse. Mary, who died when Selah was 4, rode in dressage competitions. Selah’s grandfather gave Harmony to a family friend, who now insists that Selah keep the horse’s descendant. But the animal, named Mary’s Dream Song, is difficult, defiant, and very hard to train. Selah’s grandfather’s old friend invites the girl to train the horse at his facility, and it’s up to her to convince everyone to stick with Dream. Count’s debut is an engaging read. The author clearly knows her horses, as the story includes plenty of details, including specific training methods: “If the trainer is standing tall, leaning in, and looking intently at the horse, then it knows it’s being told to move its feet.” The story also has plenty of suspenseful passages to keep readers engaged. Although Selah’s relationship with the horse is a key part of the story, her relationship with her grandfather is even more important as they deal with their grief over Selah’s grandmother’s death and figure out how to keep Dream in their lives.
An engaging horse tale with a lot of heart.Pub Date: Nov. 10, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-9970883-0-4
Page Count: 196
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Dec. 8, 2015
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
What if the market was closed when you wanted to bake a pie? You could embark for Europe, learn Italian en route, and pick up some semolina wheat in Italy, an egg in France, kurundu bark for cinnamon in Sri Lanka, and an entire cow in England (butter) before coming home via Jamaica (sugar) and Vermont (apples). The expertly designed illustrations in which a dark-haired lass journeys by various means to these interesting places to get her groceries are lovely and lively, and the narrative, too, travels at a spritely pace. The journey is neither quite logical enough to be truly informative nor quite bizarre enough to be satisfyingly silly, while the rich, sweet recipe that's appended will take some adult assistance. Still, fun. (Picture book. 4-8)
Pub Date: May 2, 1994
ISBN: 0-679-83705-1
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 1994
A sweet, soft conversation starter and a charming gift.
A paean to teachers and their surrogates everywhere.
This gentle ode to a teacher’s skill at inspiring, encouraging, and being a role model is spoken, presumably, from a child’s viewpoint. However, the voice could equally be that of an adult, because who can’t look back upon teachers or other early mentors who gave of themselves and offered their pupils so much? Indeed, some of the self-aware, self-assured expressions herein seem perhaps more realistic as uttered from one who’s already grown. Alternatively, readers won’t fail to note that this small book, illustrated with gentle soy-ink drawings and featuring an adult-child bear duo engaged in various sedentary and lively pursuits, could just as easily be about human parent- (or grandparent-) child pairs: some of the softly colored illustrations depict scenarios that are more likely to occur within a home and/or other family-oriented setting. Makes sense: aren’t parents and other close family members children’s first teachers? This duality suggests that the book might be best shared one-on-one between a nostalgic adult and a child who’s developed some self-confidence, having learned a thing or two from a parent, grandparent, older relative, or classroom instructor.
A sweet, soft conversation starter and a charming gift. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: March 1, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-943200-08-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Compendium
Review Posted Online: Dec. 13, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2017
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