Monday, April 28, 2014

Wind Dancer ~ Blog Tour

Wind Dancer
by Chris Platt
176 pages; ages 8-12
Peachtree, 2014

Ali worries about the two horses living in the dilapidated barn behind a house her school bus passes. They're none of her business, she knows, but "they'd left hoofprints in her memory."

For starters, how can you pass up the delicious intrigue of neglected horses that leave hoofprints in a girl's memory? A girl who, just a couple years earlier lost her much loved pony in an accident? An accident that was caused by her own foolishness? An accident that - maybe - precipitated her brother's enlistment in the military. That same brother who now, minus a leg, is holed up in his bedroom just a couple doors down the hallway.

 Ali knows she shouldn't be sneaking out of her house at midnight to meet her best friend Cara. She knows she shouldn't be breaking into the horse barn. But when she sees the horses she knows she has to do more, and the next day she calls Animal Control.

What seemed like a straightforward rescue operation goes all skilly-wonkers when the horses end up at Ali's house and she ends up hand-feeding them. Is this punishment? she wonders.... because as far as Ali is concerned, she is finished with horses.

Running beneath the story of the horses is Ali's relationship with her brother, who has been detached from the family since returning home a wounded warrior. Though not a horse person, he develops a relationship with the gelding Ali calls "Wind Dancer" - a relationship that just might save them both.

This is a horse story that will definitely nuzzle its way into your heart.  Join the Blog Tour and check out what Lee and JJ have to say about Wind Dancer over at Blue Owl Reviews. Tomorrow's Tour Stop is at Chat with Vera and remember to drop by The World of Peachtree Publishing . Today is also Marvelous Middle-Grade Monday round-up. Drop by to see what other bloggers are reviewing. Review copy provided by publisher.


5 comments:

  1. Thanks for featuring this great sounding horse story. I have many to recommend this to and will also add it to my own TBR list.

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  2. This sounds really interesting! I love the whole idea of these kids going on a rescue mission with this horse.

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  3. Sounds like the story my younger horse-crazed self would have gone crazy over...and might still. ;) Thanks for the recommend, and happy MMGM!

    --Suzanne
    www.suzannewarr.com

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  4. This story of rescuing a horse reminds me of two Canadian books I've reviewed in the past: Dark Days at Saddle Creek, by Shelley Peterson, and Objects in Mirror, by Tudor Robins (about an anorexic girl who rescues a malnourished horse). I'll have to add Wind Dancer to my list of books for horse lovers.

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  5. My daughter and I love stories about horses! Thanks for letting us know about this one!

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