Review by Booklist Review
Bonny plans to become "the fastest woman ever on two wheels," and her parents support her goal of racing someday. On her twelfth birthday, while riding her new bike past a farm, she sees horses in the field and strange sculptures in the farmhouse garden. Distracted, she falls off her bike, and she soon befriends the horses. She starts visiting them regularly and eventually meets their owner, Lizzie, an elderly sculptor who hires Bonny to help with the horses. Before long, Bonny models for a horse-and-rider statue and tries her hand at sketching and sculpting. This fictional memoir ends with Lizzie's funeral and Bonny becoming a sculptor, reflecting 20 years later that "the important thing is to love doing it." Writing with a storyteller's assurance and grace, Morpurgo spins an engaging tale of a girl who's open to exploring unexpected pathways. Few books for middle-graders include color illustrations, but Gill's large, expressive mixed-media pictures, along with her precise black-and-white drawings, become an integral part of the reading experience. An unusual and rewarding book.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
A recollection of a pivotal turn in the road of life. In thoughtful, measured tones, the story's narrator, an English girl named Bonny, now "well over thirty," reminisces about a time in her life when her ambition was to be an Olympic medal--winning bicyclist. Receiving a racing bike for her 12th birthday, Bonny heads out for a ride in the Dales. Distracted by three horses cavorting in a field, Bonny falls. Recovering, she examines her slightly injured knee and laments over her flat tire, then sees the three horses gazing at her over the stone wall. Bonny is smitten. From then on, she plans her training rides to pass the horses' field and begins to bring them carrots. Eventually, she meets their owner, a woman sculptor (apparently based on the British sculptor Elisabeth Frink, to whom the book is dedicated) who offers her a job mucking out the horses' stalls--and Bonny's straight-focus road to being a competitive cyclist takes a turn. Thoughtful and validating, the story embraces the idea of change and doing what you love. The refreshing illustrations combine full-color paintings of the Dales with sidebar black-and-white studies of animals, reminiscent of an artist's sketchbook. In addition to livening up the small, squarish trim size of the book, the illustrative style also mirrors and enhances the storyline of the artist/sculptor who is so formative to Bonny's path in life. The cast is assumed White. A thoughtfully told, refreshingly illustrated story. (Historical fiction. 10-14) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
