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.

Words With Wings

Words with Wings
by Nikki Grimes
96 pages; ages 8 - 12
Wordsong, 2013

Can't leave April without reviewing at least one book of poetry. Words with Wings is more than a collection of great poems by Nikki Grimes - it's a novel in verse.

Gabby - Gabriella, named after the archangel Gabriel - is a daydreamer. She uses her daydreams to take her away from the screaming between her unhappy parents, and also to remember the good times they shared as a family.

Her daydreams take flights from words that don't sit on the page. Instead they wiggle and tickle her imagination and carry her thoughts away. And all Gabby can do is hang on for the ride.

She finds a friend whose imagination takes flight in drawing, and another friend in the teacher who appreciates her imagination, daydreams and all. When he comes up with "daydream time" it helps Gabby tame her flights of imagination and find a way to focus on learning without giving up her delicious daydreams.

Review copy provided by publisher.

Another Great Earth Day Book: The Great Big Green

Ready for some Earth Day riddles? And a different take on "going green"?

The Great Big Green
by Peggy Gifford; illus. by Lisa Desimini
32 pages; ages 4-7
Boyds Mills Press, 2014

What's really big and green? Not sure? Then follow the clues in this lyrical, poetic, perfect-for-Earth-Day book which begins:

The thing is,
the thing is green.
And the green is,
the green is green.

Confession: green is was not my favorite color. Until I opened the pages and discovered "dragon green", and "anaconda green", "turtle green" and "tornado green". I'm a gardener, and while I appreciate the subtle differences between "grass green" and "kale green" and "ears-not-quite-ripe-corn green" I never really thought about them belonging to the same family as the crayon-box green. They don't - and neither do the other amazing greens captured in this puzzle-poem book. The pages are full of details that will keep you looking - and bring you back to look some more.

But there's more than natural greens captured in these pages. There's a green door, socks, traffic lights and a snippet of a familiar folk song (with a title containing "green" in it).  And at the very end, when you have all the clues, you might possibly guess what this very green thing is. I won't give it away, but I will say that the last page is a wonderful surprise.

Click over to Archimedes Notebook for an Earth Day scavenger hunt - and other activities and resources this week. Review copy provided by the publisher.