Disclosure: I received this book to review. The opinions shared are mine.

If you’re ever been fortunate enough to spend time with a horse, you know how incredible they are!  In the book Wonder Horse, a spunky yearling named Wager helps young Sera to adjust to her new surroundings.  Through Wager, Sera learns that different personalities can get along, and be valued.  This story will resonate with young teens who can relate to bullying, being “the new kid,” and finding friends at school. The book is quite short (at just under 100 pages) and is therefore perfect for reluctant readers. There wasn’t any truly difficult vocabulary, and advanced readers will enjoy the play on words that often appears in the text.  At the end of the book, readers are rewarded by learning about the “real” Wager, who seems to be just as fun-loving as the fictional horse.  The side characters are worth noting as well. My favorite character was Dev, Sera’s unique friend, because she provided an interesting perspective on Sera’s life.  I could relate to Sera’s parents; after encouraging my daughter to try an endless slew of activities, she finally found her niche. It’s tough enough to be a tween; having to relocate can sometimes be the straw that breaks the camel’s back. What I liked most about this book was that there was no foul language or inappropriate content. Additionally, Sera was generally respectful toward adults in the story, as well as to her peers.  I would rate this book a 3.5 out of 5.

ABOUT WONDER HORSE

Wonder Horse by Anita Daher

Publication Date: May 8, 2015

Publisher: Rebelight Publishing

Fitting into a new school in a new city isn’t easy, but dreams come true for Sera with a gift from her parents: a gorgeous and spirited American Paint horse. Sera’s bubble bursts when a mean girl, Brittany, tells her that neither she nor her less than well-trained horse belong with the rest of the “reiners” in their riding class. As Sera sets out to prove Brittany wrong, she risks losing her passion for training and the friendship of Dev, another girl who truly understands her.

An earlier version of this story was originally published by Stabenfeldt (Stavanger, Norway) in 2011 as Wager the Wonder Horse and distributed in six languages: Norwegian, Hungarian, Czech, German, Finnish and Swedish.

Purchase Links:

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ABOUT ANITA DAHER:

Anita Daher has been entrenched in the publishing industry since 1995, and is (thus far) author of fourteen books for children and teens. Aside from short stints as grave-plot seller, tour guide, and children’s party clown, she’s worked in aviation, publishing and broadcasting. When not word wrangling, she enjoys inhabiting characters on stage and screen.

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