Secret Horse

Description

When eighth-grader Abby Lovitt looks out at those pure-gold rolling hills, she knows there's no place she'd rather be than her family's ranch - even with all the hard work of tending to nine horses. But some chores are no work at all, like grooming young Jack. At eight months, his rough foal coat has shed out, leaving a smooth, rich silk, like chocolate. As for Black George, such a good horse, it turns out he's a natural jumper. When he and Abby clear four feet easy as pie, heads start to turn at the ring - buyers' heads - and Abby knows Daddy won't turn down a good offer. Then a letter arrives from a private investigator, and suddenly Abby stands to lose not one horse but two. The letter states that Jack's mare may have been sold to the Lovitts as stolen goods. A mystery unfolds, more surprising than Abby could ever expect. Will she lose her beloved Jack to his rightful owners?

Jane Smiley was born in Los Angeles and grew up in St Louis, Missouri. She was educated at Vassar College and the University of Iowa. In 1992 she won the Pulitzer Prize for A Thousand Acres, for which she also won the National Book Critics' Circle Award. Her other novels include Moo (1995), Horse Heaven (2000), Good Faith (2003), Ten Days in the Hills (2007) and Private Life (2010). She has written on politics, farming, horse-training, child-rearing, literature, impulse buying, marriage and many other topics in publications including Vogue, the New Yorker, Practical Horseman, Harper's and the New York Times. In 2006 she was awarded the PEN Lifetime Achievement Award for Literature. Nobody's Horse is her first novel for young readers and draws on her lifelong love of horses. Jane lives in California with her family, three dogs, and her sixteen (and counting) horses.