Wild Girl

August 10, 2009
In this tender if occasionally overdramatic novel, two-time Newbery Honor author Giff (Lily’s Crossing
; Pictures of Hollis Woods
) relates the analogous stories of a 12-year-old girl and a filly. Lidie moves from Brazil to New York to join her brother and horse trainer father, who had left their homeland years earlier. She knows little English, misses the horse she loved to ride and is angry that her well-meaning father and brother still treat her like a little girl (“They didn’t know me, not at all”). Lidie immediately bonds with Wild Girl, her father’s new horse, which she observes “had been born in the warmth of the South... and brought here to this cold world, just as I had.” There’s little subtlety in the parallels Giff draws between the two: Lidie’s late mother had called her “my wild girl” and, sensing the filly is lonesome, she thinks, “I knew how that was.” Yet readers will find Lidie a strong protagonist, her difficulty in adjusting to her new life credible and her eventual feeling of belonging—she finally feels at home when riding Wild Girl for the first time—gratifying. Ages 8–12.

August 1, 2009
Gr 4-6-Twelve-year-old Lidie must leave her beloved home in Brazil for a new life in New York. She reunites with Pai and her older brother, who left shortly after Mamãe died five years earlier. Lidie's father and Rafael train racehorses for a wealthy benefactor. When she meets the filly Pai has dubbed Wild Girl, Lidie remembers her mother calling her by that name. The horse's story parallels hers, as they are both plunked down into an unfamiliar, sometimes harsh environment. But when at last Lidie rides Wild Girl, it is as if their spunky, spirited souls gloriously merge. This brief tale of the sense of powerlessness that accompanies childhood is magnified by the perspective of an immigrant girl. It also addresses the pain of separation from loved ones, and animal cruelty. These issues are dealt with in an evenhanded, never too sorrowful or desperate way. Readers will find hope and resiliency in this coming-of-age story."Tracy Weiskind, Chicago Public Library"

Copyright 2009 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

June 1, 2009
Grades 3-6 Twelve-year-old Lydie has lived with her aunt and uncle for five years, ever since her mother died and her father and older brother moved from Brazil to the U.S. Lydie is eager to join them, but when she arrives, she feels ill at ease with her new language, her new school, and even her family. Dissatisfied with the old, tame horse her father (a trainer) gives her to ride, she sets her sights on Wild Girl, a touchy, spirited filly. Mistakes, misunderstandings, and moments of awkwardness seem insurmountable, but slowly Lydie begins to feel at home. Chapters of Lydies sensitive first-person narrative alternate with vivid third-person passagesdescribing Wild Girls life. Readers who choose the book because of the horse on the jacket will find a satisfying girl-meets-horse story. Those looking for a convincing, sometimes moving immigrant story will find it here as well. But the heart of this accessible chapter book is its fine, perceptive portrayal of Lydie and her family.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2009, American Library Association.)

January 1, 2010
Twelve-year-old Lidie, headstrong and impulsive, leaves Brazil and joins her father and brother in Queens, New York, where they train racehorses. Meanwhile, a filly is born in South Carolina. Together the two "wild girls," horse and human, figure out who they are and where they belong. Rich characters and raw, real emotions make this more than the usual horse story.

(Copyright 2010 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

September 1, 2009
Since her mother's death five years before, twelve-year-old Lidie has been living with her aunt and uncle in her native Brazil. Now she is finally joining her father and older brother Rafael in Queens, New York, where they work training race horses. Headstrong, impulsive Lidie is excited to show Pai, her father (dubbed the Horseman), all she has learned about horses and riding, but Pai and Rafael still think of her as a little girl. They remember the seven-year-old who loved the color pink and Disney characters, and they can't see the real Lidie, the strong young woman who can ride Cavalo, the farmer's horse, bareback through the rough terrain of Jales, Brazil. While Lidie is painfully adjusting to a new home, school, and language, a filly is born in South Carolina. The alternating story of the filly unfolds slowly, from her birth to her trip to a Pennsylvania farm to the day Pai picks her up and takes on the challenge of her training. Together the two wild girls, horse and human, find exactly who they are meant to be and where they belong. Lidie's story is the tale of many immigrants, except that she is a stranger of sorts even to her own family. Rich characters and raw, real emotions make this much more than the usual horse story.

(Copyright 2009 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)