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Using fiction to smash stereotypes 21/03/25
Secret Horse
Publisher: Faber Children's Books
The sequel to Nobody's Horse continues the story of Abby and her god-fearing family on a Californian ranch in the mid 1960s. Lovers of horse stories will enjoy all the detail of horse husbandry and show-jumping, set within a mystery concerning a foal born to an unknown horse bought in good faith at a sale.
Abby is a strong central character, and the lifestyle of deep rural America is well drawn. Unless they follow the well-hidden clues about films and racehorse pedigrees, readers may not realise that this is a historical novel - a tale from the author's own teenage years perhaps - because the moral dilemmas which face Abby are not dissimilar from those which may face many teenagers today.