The Wild Path
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- $7.99
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- $7.99
Publisher Description
The Line Tender meets The Secret Horses of Briar Hill in this hopeful, heartfelt story about one girl's search for legendary horses and her quest to piece her family back together.
Twelve-year-old Claire Barton doesn't like the "flutter feeling" that fills her chest when she worries about the future, but she knows what she loves: the land that's been in her family for three generations; her best friend Maya; her family's horses, Sunny and Sam; and her older brother Andy. That's why, with Andy recently sent to rehab and her parents planning to sell the horses, Claire's world feels like it might flutter to pieces.
When Claire learns about equine therapy, she imagines a less lonely future that keeps her family together, brother and horses included. But, when she finds what seem to be mysterious wild horses in the woods behind her house, she realizes she has a bitmore company than she bargained for. With this new secret—and a little bit of luck—Claire will discover the beauty of change, the power of family, and the strength within herself.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Sensitive 12-year-old Claire desperately misses her 18-year-old brother, Andy, who is in rehab to treat his addition to pain medication. Following her mother's job loss and the expenses from her brother's treatment, Claire is also determined to find a way for her family to keep their two beloved horses, and she sees winning the prize money from her school history fair as a way to save them. When she finds an old clipping about an accident involving horses and her family's Vermont farm, she connects it to the horses in the woods that only she can see. Baughman (The Light in the Lake) effectively portrays Claire's facility with and affection for her family's horses, but a fantastical subplot involving ghostly animals feels extraneous, distracting from the otherwise powerful narrative. In addition, a few metaphors, particularly the birds used to express Claire's anxieties ("The sparrows swirl and tumble and bump into one another as they fly"), feel repetitive. Claire's feelings, however, are authentically portrayed, and Baughman's novel offers a sensitive look at the ripple effects of addiction. Ages 8 12.
