~~ About Wonder Horse ~~
Wonder
Horse by Anita Daher
Publication
Date: May 8, 2015
Publisher:
Rebelight Publishing
Fitting
into a new school in a new city isn’t easy, but dreams come true for Sera with
a gift from her parents: a gorgeous and spirited American Paint horse. Sera’s
bubble bursts when a mean girl, Brittany, tells her that neither she nor her
less than well-trained horse belong with the rest of the “reiners” in their
riding class. As Sera sets out to prove Brittany wrong, she risks losing her
passion for training and the friendship of Dev, another girl who truly
understands her.
An
earlier version of this story was originally published by Stabenfeldt
(Stavanger, Norway) in 2011 as Wager the Wonder Horse and distributed in six
languages: Norwegian, Hungarian, Czech, German, Finnish and Swedish.
~~ My Review ~~
Wonder Horse is a delightful story about a young girl and
her new horse, Wager. As Sera struggles to fit into a new school, she and her
horse are snubbed for his less than perfect bloodlines for the sport of
reining. But Sera is determined to prove her special boy can do anything,
including a few tricks she teaches him.
Along with her goal to show her horse’s abilities, Sera must
also decide what’s important to her – sucking up to the mean girls, being
childish and fighting back, or choosing her reactions to become the person she
wants to be.
This is a book that will appeal both to girls who love
horses and those who know nothing about them. The horse lingo is well explained in a
natural way, and Sera’s difficulties are universal. But she’s a smart girl who
handles even a spooking horse analytically and finds the ability to use her
parent’s psychology experience in her own way.
I loved that Wager’s antics were based upon a real horse.
I’ve known a couple horses that would have been his best friends and delighted
in learning tricks from their owners as well.
The editing of Wonder Horse was top notch, no grammar nazi
complaints from me! The only nit I found was Sera’s extremely calm reaction to
her horse running away with her. It took away from the drama of the situation.
Or maybe I’m just jealous cuz when my horse bolts, I panic. No thinking at all!
I heartily recommend Wonder Horse to middle grade readers or
anyone who wants to enjoy a low-key, but very cute, horse story with a likeable
main character who comes to terms with nay-sayers and proves them wrong.
Link to Goodreads:
Purchase Links:
~~ Excerpt ~~
As we walk our horses toward the arena
door, I see Brittany watching us, and she doesn’t look happy. Talk about
jealous! As usual, her mare flattens her ears at Wager. That mare might benefit
from Mom and Dad’s lecture on actions and reactions.
“Dani,”
Brittany calls, “have you seen some of the other things Wager can do?”
“What do you mean?” Dani asks.
“Yeah,
what do you mean?” I echo.
“He’s
a good looking horse,” she says. “Flashy.”
She
looks at me, as if expecting me to say something. Like what? I’m way too
surprised.
“Since
they’re going to be at the winter show anyway, why don’t they enter a showmanship
class?”
Dani
cocks her head to the side. “I wonder,” she says. “Sera, what do you think?”
I’ve
watched showmanship classes in Calgary. It wouldn’t be like our lesson. Wager
would have to be groomed to look like a million bucks—not a problem for my
boy—and must respond instantly to my cues to walk, trot or halt. He’d also have
to stand still for very long periods of time.
“Honestly?
I don’t think he’s patient enough.”
“Well
let’s see,” she says. “Go ahead and walk a small circle with him.”
I
feel like today’s lesson has been three-in-one! We walk, trot, stop, and start
and backup on Dani’s cues. Finally she calls us in. “I think you’ll do fine if
you’d like to try it,” she says. “Good idea, Brittany.”
“No
problem,” Brittany says, and I see a strange glint in her eyes. “Wager’s a good
boy.” She looks at him. “Aren’t you. Wager? Such a good boy!”
I’m
so busy thinking about the show that I don’t notice how closely Wager is
listening to Brittany. I catch on just in time to watch Wager offer a vigorous
“yes” head-bob, which unfortunately catches Dani’s chin on the upswing.
“Son
of a gun!” she shouts after a sharp cry of pain. She’s holding her chin, but
manages to look at me and spit out, “What is that?”
“A
trick,” I say, my voice small.
She
shakes her head. “Bad idea, Sera. Does he always do that when someone tells him
he’s a good boy?”
“Pretty
much,” I say. “You have to be looking at him.”
“And
what if a showmanship judge tells him the same thing?” She lets go of her jaw
and gives her head a roll, as if to work out the kinks, and I get the sense
she’s not really waiting for me to answer. Her chin is red where Wager whacked
her. “I’m not confident that we can train that out of him in one week. Stick to
reining this time around, Sera. We’ll work on showmanship another time.” She
turns and—muttering the whole way—leads Spike out of the arena.
“Why
did you do that, Brittany?”
“I
don’t know what you’re talking about,” she says, smirking. “Clearly, Wager is a
special boy, but that doesn’t mean he can be good at everything.” She sniffs.
“You don’t have to show him, you
know. He’s a nice riding horse. Why don’t you stick with that?”
My
heart and every bit of happy I had in me drops to the arena floor. I don’t know
what I did to turn Brittany against us, but it’s pretty clear she doesn’t want
us in her world.
We’ll
show her, Wager. We’ve got to.
I
stroke Wager’s nose. Brittany’s right about one thing. He is a nice riding horse. We used to have so much fun together. When
exactly did riding stop being fun?
~~ About Anita Daher ~~
Anita Daher has been entrenched in the publishing industry
since 1995, and is (thus far) author of fourteen books for children and teens.
Aside from short stints as grave-plot seller, tour guide, and children’s party
clown, she’s worked in aviation, publishing and broadcasting. When not word
wrangling, she enjoys inhabiting characters on stage and screen.
Connect with the Author: Website | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads
Giveaway Information: Winner will be drawn June 26, 2015
· Two (2) winners will received a physical copy of Wonder Horse by Anita Daher (US/Canada)
· Five (5) winners will receive a digital copy of Wonder Horse by Anita Daher (INT)
Giveaway hosted by:
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