The Pegasus Shortcut is a delightful short read for young and older readers alike.  Set in a time when horses are the source of transport for messengers, it focuses on an illness in a local village.  The young son of a messenger spends his time preparing horses for his father who needs to get magical crystals to help cure those who haven’t yet died from a mysterious illness.

The son is dismayed to find after his father has left that one of the crystals was left behind.  Without it, the others won’t work and the trip will have been wasted.  Worse yet, his father will have exposed himself to the illness and could potentially meet the same fate of many who have died from it.

It is obvious he must try to catch up to his father.  And yet his father is on the fastest horse there is.  Still, the young boy decides on a pony that is sure footed and fast.  He knows he is racing against time to get to his father before he reaches the village.

The Pegasus Shortcut

There is a shortcut that would allow him to achieve his goal – beat his father to the town gate.  But it is unsafe and was banned many years earlier.  He soon decides to take the risk – people’s lives are at stake.  He takes a stubborn pony and heads out over the treacherous mountain as quickly as he can.

The trip is difficult but the boy is sure he is making time.  His mount presses on steadily and when they do the inevitable and beat his father to town, he realises a little magic may have been involved – and not from the crystals.  His mount seems to have the ability to fly.

Author – Pamela Love
Fiction – children
In my library – as an eBook
Want it? Get it now on Amazon.

Save

The Wild One is a horse story for young readers.  It is focused on an eleven year old boy who doesn’t seem to fit into his surroundings.  Horses feature heavily in this children’s story, but there is also a delightful tale of the Cheyenne people and their way of life.  Unfortunately for Snow Deer, although he feels at home as a Cheyenne, his tribe doesn’t agree that he belongs.

Snow Deer’s father was a white man.  The young boy inherited his father’s looks – including blonde hair – and his love for painting.  Neither seems to fit into the world of hunting for food and fading into the background of nature.  Snow Deer finds himself a victim of bullying from the other Cheyenne boys.  The young boy wonders how he can convince them he is staying.

A chance meeting with a white horse has Snow Deer finding something else that doesn’t fit in.  In time the stallion is caught but the Cheyenne conclude he’ll be no good with his pale colouring that will show up easily in the day and night.

Wanting to prove himself, Snow Deer vows to break in the white stallion.  A wild ride results in the two having the chance to change the history of the Cheyenne people for good.  The Wild One is an interesting and realistic read with a lovely horse focus.  Young readers are sure to enjoy the story.

Author – Eve Bunting
Fiction – children
In my library – that it is 🙂
Want it? Get it now on Amazon.

“A horse loves freedom, and the weariest old work horse will roll on the ground or break into a lumbering gallop when he is turned loose into the open.” ― Gerald Raftery