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3.88 AVERAGE
3.88 AVERAGE
So, I needed a book set in Wyoming to finish my 50 states challenge. Hey, this was a kids' series and a family film, why not. Well, I am not cut out for life on the farm, that's why not. I always forget how brutal it can be. But, HEY! I read all 50 States this year!
Ken is a kid who can't do anything right. He daydreams during the school year and isn't promoted. He is the object of his older brother's scorn. He makes a mess of everything he is asked to do on his father's ranch; his father is fed up with him.
Just when you think Ken is doomed to a life of failure, his mother has an imaginative idea: give Ken what he wants most, a horse of his own, a horse to break and teach and love. And because he loves his wife and because he can't think of anything else, Ken's father agrees and allows Ken to choose a colt to raise.
Ken chooses Flicka, a colt with a wild and unmanageable mother. Ken's father tries to change his son's mind, but Ken stubbornly clings to his desire for Flicka. And once again, it feels like Ken is heading for doom, that he has once again made the wrong choice.
But, though Flicka and Ken have many setbacks, Ken's decision to choose Flicka is a good one, and both Ken and Flicka become stronger for their trials and troubles.
This is a great story of courage and redemption and love and struggle.
Just when you think Ken is doomed to a life of failure, his mother has an imaginative idea: give Ken what he wants most, a horse of his own, a horse to break and teach and love. And because he loves his wife and because he can't think of anything else, Ken's father agrees and allows Ken to choose a colt to raise.
Ken chooses Flicka, a colt with a wild and unmanageable mother. Ken's father tries to change his son's mind, but Ken stubbornly clings to his desire for Flicka. And once again, it feels like Ken is heading for doom, that he has once again made the wrong choice.
But, though Flicka and Ken have many setbacks, Ken's decision to choose Flicka is a good one, and both Ken and Flicka become stronger for their trials and troubles.
This is a great story of courage and redemption and love and struggle.
Wonderful story about a boy who daydreams and a filly no one thinks can be gentled because her mother is so completely "loco." There's a lot going on in this story, but it all comes around to a horse and boy who save each other and become best friends in the process. Read with a box of tissues, however, because there are parts that will have most people bawling even though they know a children's story will end on a high note. Boy, what a high note! I told my son, when he seemed crestfallen when it was over, that it was a good way to end a book - on a high note of hope and reward for the struggle they both persisted through.
Other than one racially insensitive comment, this book is timeless and beautiful. It's ostensibly a story about a boy and a horse, but there's more here than that. I read it at 8 and again at 35, and both times I was impressed down to my toes.