A well-crafted middle-grade horse novel.
Oliver’s (Write Now!, 2016, etc.) middle-grade novel tells the story of a boy’s relationship with an unusual horse.
Sam isn’t a great fan of horses despite growing up on a farm as the son of two respected horse trainers. They specialize in breaking racehorses. Trumpeter, his father’s old racehorse, is one of their testier animals, and Sam’s mother, Sasha, tells him that they’re about to acquire another named Dogs of War. “He has some…quirks,” she explains. “His owner is hoping that I can ‘teach him some manners.’ ” In a riding accident, Trumpeter shatters Sasha’s leg. Sam struggles to get her to safety before the old racehorse can do more damage. With his mother bedridden, 12-year-old Sam must help his father continue operations at the farm, including training Dogs of War. Sam feels an immediate grudge toward the equine, who is the offspring of Trumpeter, but he is drawn to Dog’s strange, unhorselike behavior: lolling his tongue from the side of his mouth, wagging his tail, crouching on his front legs like his canine namesake. Despite his initial inhibitions, Sam quickly bonds with Dog, closely enough that Sam begins to wonder if there’s a way that the horse could help him win money to help the struggling farm. Sam’s father used to win races on Trumpeter for purses. Couldn’t Sam do the same thing on Dog? Oliver writes in a clear, swiftly flowing prose. She manages to construct her animal characters so that they feel just as round and real as their human counterparts. The reader gets a good sense of the size and potential destructiveness of the horses, and Sam’s struggles around them are thus cast in greater relief. While the plot sometimes leans toward the predictable, young readers will likely find much to enjoy as Sam and Dog challenge one another to grow into better, more mature versions of themselves.
A well-crafted middle-grade horse novel.Pub Date: Oct. 17, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-692-55909-3
Page Count: 298
Publisher: Write More Publications
Review Posted Online: May 26, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Broccoli: No way is James going to eat broccoli. “It’s disgusting,” says James. Well then, James, says his father, let’s consider the alternatives: some wormy dirt, perhaps, some stinky socks, some pre-chewed gum? James reconsiders the broccoli, but—milk? “Blech,” says James. Right, says his father, who needs strong bones? You’ll be great at hide-and-seek, though not so great at baseball and kickball and even tickling the dog’s belly. James takes a mouthful. So it goes through lumpy oatmeal, mushroom lasagna and slimy eggs, with James’ father parrying his son’s every picky thrust. And it is fun, because the father’s retorts are so outlandish: the lasagna-making troll in the basement who will be sent back to the rat circus, there to endure the rodent’s vicious bites; the uneaten oatmeal that will grow and grow and probably devour the dog that the boy won’t be able to tickle any longer since his bones are so rubbery. Schneider’s watercolors catch the mood of gentle ribbing, the looks of bewilderment and surrender and the deadpanned malarkey. It all makes James’ father’s last urging—“I was just going to say that you might like them if you tried them”—wholly fresh and unexpected advice. (Early reader. 5-9)
Pub Date: May 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-547-14956-1
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: April 4, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
The seemingly ageless Seeger brings back his renowned giant for another go in a tuneful tale that, like the art, is a bit sketchy, but chockful of worthy messages. Faced with yearly floods and droughts since they’ve cut down all their trees, the townsfolk decide to build a dam—but the project is stymied by a boulder that is too huge to move. Call on Abiyoyo, suggests the granddaughter of the man with the magic wand, then just “Zoop Zoop” him away again. But the rock that Abiyoyo obligingly flings aside smashes the wand. How to avoid Abiyoyo’s destruction now? Sing the monster to sleep, then make it a peaceful, tree-planting member of the community, of course. Seeger sums it up in a postscript: “every community must learn to manage its giants.” Hays, who illustrated the original (1986), creates colorful, if unfinished-looking, scenes featuring a notably multicultural human cast and a towering Cubist fantasy of a giant. The song, based on a Xhosa lullaby, still has that hard-to-resist sing-along potential, and the themes of waging peace, collective action, and the benefits of sound ecological practices are presented in ways that children will both appreciate and enjoy. (Picture book. 5-9)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-689-83271-0
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2001
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