Description
First in a brilliant new middle grade horse series from the award-winning author of The War That Saved My Life.
Harper's life just exploded. Her parents are getting a divorce and eleven-year-old Harper and her mother are starting again-in a cramped house, in a new town, where everything feels unfamiliar, including the riding stables next door. Harper has never been around horses before. And no, she does not want to learn to ride. Then a truck dumps a starved and neglected horse right in Harper's yard.
One look at the horse's huge eyes and skinny body and something inside Harper unlocks. She names the horse Phoenix, and she will not give up on him. Neither, it turns out, will Phoenix give up on her. Will this be Harper's first step towards new friends? Towards riding?
Phoenix is for readers of the Pony Club Secrets series and anyone who loves horses.
Review
When 11-year-old Harper gets to school and realises that everyone is talking about her Dad and her best friend Cat’s Mum having secret affair, her world is thrown into turmoil. She can’t face Cat, so she is glad that her Mum is moving them away to a live in a tiny house on a horse property.
When a truck stops and dumps a starving horse at the property, Harper claims him as her own. Everyone tells her not to get her hopes up as he may never recover. But Harper thinks that things shouldn’t be just thrown away, like her Dad did to her family, and she is determined to get Phoenix back to good health.
When she starts making new friends, she soon realises that she might even be able to have a good life here.
Full of some big issues, there are a wide range of characters in this story - from those with racist and elitist attitudes, as well as down to earth and good people who can help make the world a better place. It tackles coping with change, the upheaval caused by separation, animal cruelty, friendship and hope, and is a terrific book for readers aged from 10 to 14 years.
