Blue Moon. (Orca Soundings). Marilyn Halvorson. Vancouver, BC: Orca, 1994/2004. 109 pp., pbk., $9.95. ISBN 1-55143-320-6. Subject Headings: Horses-Juvenile fiction. Determination-Juvenile fiction. Grades 7-10 / Ages 12-15. Review by Christina Pike. *** /4

excerpt:

"Well, open the door, Bobbie Joe. Let's see the colt that's going to be a future barrel racing champion."

I hadn't been looking forward to this moment. "Well, it's not exactly a..." I began, but Dad was already opening the trailer door. I just had time to catch the halter rope before the mare exploded out of there like a blue tornado. Before I got her under control she managed to drag the rope through my already rope-burned hand. "Whoa!" I roared furiously and, amazingly, she stopped. She stood there trembling and eyeing my family like they'd just landed from Mars. They stood there looking at her in about the same way.

"Well, she's, uh, an interesting color," my mother managed at last.

Dad looked her up and down and I could see he was trying hard to say the right thing. "A little good feed might make quite a difference" was the best he could come up with.

Sara stepped up and inspected the horse at close range. "Bobbie Jo, that is the most totally gross excuse for a horse I ever saw in my life."

Blue Moon by Marilyn Halvorson is the story of Bobbie Jo and her newly purchased blue roan mare. Using the money she had saved since she was ten, Bobbie Jo attends her first ever horse sale and buys a rebel. Frightened and excited to own the horse, Bobbie Jo both teaches and learns from the blue roan.

     Halvorson chooses to tell this hi-lo story from Bobby Jo's point of view. By Halvorson’s doing this, Blue Moon becomes more than a story about a horse; it is also a story about Bobby Jo. The blue roan serves as a way to bring Bobby Jo's family together and allow Bobby Jo to see who Cole McCall really is. This is a story about friendship, determination and finding one's inner strength. A good read.

Recommended

Christina Pike has been seconded to the Department of Education, Newfoundland, as a Test Consultant.

To comment on this title or this review, send mail to cm@umanitoba.ca.

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Published by The Manitoba Library Association ISSN 1201-9364

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