Sundance by Laura Holt-Haslam



Sundance by Laura Holt-Haslam, is a great book for young horse fans that love reading. I recently had the opportunity to read this story and really, really enjoyed it.

Malachi Adams is the main character in this novel. Mal has recently lost his best friend – Sunny – a golden retriever. Sunny was sick and needed to be put down. Whilst Mal understood that this was necessary, he is obviously distressed at the way the situation played out.

When his mother shares the news, the twelve-year-old runs outside, angry and hurt as he considers that he wasn’t there when his best friend passed away. In his eagerness to get out of the house, Mal soon finds himself lost. He ends up stumbling across a property that he hasn’t been to before. 

Sundance by Laura Holt-Haslam

At this property is a beautiful golden horse – the same colour as his retriever, Sunny. Mal instantly feels drawn to the horse, although he knows very little about horses. He can see that she is heavily pregnant and her behaviour seems frantic to him. Where is the owner? What is going on?

Mal soon discovers she is without water and works quickly to rectify that situation. After a little more investigating, he is keen to give her some hay, too. The barn where the hay is stored is run down and smelly. Something doesn’t seem right with this picture. Still, Mal does what he can for the horse and leaves, knowing his mother will be getting worried.

In time Mal shares about his ‘secret horse’ with someone at school – a girl named Amelia. This appears to be a big thing for him, as he doesn’t have any close friends at school. Mostly he is picked on because of his stutter. It is something he is very self-conscious about, but finds that animals don’t care about at all. That endeared Sunny to him even more, and even this new found horse that he has named in honour of his beloved retriever.

Amelia works with Malachi to help care for the mare. As she has horse riding lessons, Amelia is able to teach him a thing or two about the mare – a palomino Quarter Horse – how to put a head collar on and lead her. The two work hard to look after the horse, but tending to a pregnant mare’s needs is hard to keep a secret.

Sundance was an absolutely delightful read. It looked at how unlikely friendships can be created, focused on horses and their care and wove together a beautiful story. Highly recommended.

Author – Laura Holt-Haslam
Fiction – children
In my library – that it is, as an electronic copy.

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