"All too soon the ride ended and Jeremy slipped off, took Rachel’s head in his hands and actually kissed her nose. She could have fainted…her first kiss!" The Girl Who Galloped."
(Upper elementary & middle school age readership) By Deb Gerace geraced@gmail.com
Rachel Renfro is an 11 yr. old girl who, like so many girls, is so involved with horses without actually owning one that she imagines herself a horse. In spite of the approaching pressures of adolescence and the departure of other girlfriends who are suddenly swept in the teen-age world of Jr. High and boys, Rachel gallops on alone in her imagination. Her little brother, Benjy, would love to join her and admires her fantasy world, but Rachel never really lets him inside. One late autumn morning, on one of her forays into the woods where she acts out her fantasy, she comes upon an enchanted place and become the horse she dreams she is. Now she is faced with cold hard reality as she cannot communicate with anyone and must search for food, find shelter and avoid neighborhood dogs and aggressive children. She is captured by a local farmer and Benjy comes to see her and guesses who she is. Through Benjy, Rachel manages to escape the farmer after he sells pony rides on her. As a result of the escape, she has a hair-raising adventure trying to cross the Interstate Highway to find grazing land. After that frightening adventure, Benjy smuggles food to the woods to help her survive and later, brings Jeremy, an 8th grade boy, into the picture at the suggestion of his Cub Scout Den Mother. Jeremy works with Thoroughbreds on a horse farm down-state where his father is a trainer. Although Jeremy is helpful and Rachel is attracted to this boy and loves that he is a horse-person as well, she finds her fantasy not at all what she thought it would be and finally manages to find the enchanted place and become a young girl again. This story is written for all those girls from middle school up to early high school, who are still out there, running in their dreams with The Girl Who Galloped!''
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