Sundancer
Only Bird can communicate with and calm Saddle Creek Farm's new horse, Sundancer, an ability that, in turn, calms Bird and helps her to move beyond her elective mutism. The parallel experiences of Bird, abandoned by her parents, and the frightened horse once scheduled to be put down form the core of this story, which incorporates wonderful detail about training and showing a jumping horse as well as poignant scenes of reconciliation between Bird and her self-centered mother. When the beautifully performing horse attracts the attention of its former owners, who will do anything to get it back, the pace of action steps up, but the narrative becomes less convincing, with troubles at the horse show, nighttime raids, and not entirely unexpected revelations at the climactic scene. While Bird's story shares its rural Canadian setting and some characters with Dancer (1996), Abby Malone (1999), and Stagestruck (2002), it stands well on its own. Isaacs, Kathleen