Publishers Weekly (Fri Oct 06 00:00:00 CDT 2023)

An overprotected orphan, an imperious guardian who dies suddenly, a tender reunion with long-lost rustic relatives—Ryan (<EMPHASIS TYPE=""ITALIC"">Esperanza Rising) opens her tween crowd-pleaser with tried-and-true material, and follows with even more of a sure thing, a horse story. The author gets the romance just right, from 11-year-old heroine Maya’s aching desire to learn about her long-dead mother and fit into her mother’s family, to Maya’s instant connection with the horses raised and trained by her great-aunt Vi. Details surrounding the care and riding of horses are both authentic and copious. Accordingly, readers aren’t likely to mind either the clichéd characters or gaps in plausibility. Nor will they blink as Ryan interweaves the narrative with segments told from the perspective of a wild mare named Artemisia (after, says Vi, the 17th-century painter Artemisia Gentileschi): “She draped her neck over his withers, reassuring herself that [her colt] wasn’t going anywhere with a band of bachelor stallions.” When Maya learns that Artemisia was once her mother’s horse, a pairing seems inevitable; Ryan exploits it for maximum effect as the centerpiece of an attenuated survival sequence that involves an earthquake, broken bones, near-starvation, bareback riding and, of course, a bond between wild horse and child. The overstuffed quality of the plot may seem like a good thing to the target audience—adventure plus horses trumps realism anytime. Ages 9-12. <EMPHASIS TYPE=""ITALIC"">(Sept.)

Voice of Youth Advocates

When an author has written a text as wonderful as Esperanza Rising (Scholastic, 2000/VOYA December 2000), there is always a question as to the ability to again produce something so remarkable. This reviewer was almost afraid to read Ryan's latest book for fear of disappointment. But this story about a girl and a horse delivers on multiple levels. The emotional depth might be even more complex than past stories because of the multiple perspectives. Told through the eyes of Maya, a young girl kept in recluse-like conditions by her grandmother since her parents' death, and by Artemisia, a wild horse on the Western ranges, the chapters move from walk through gallop, which girl and horse must both learn to do. Each must learn to trust others, as well as experience loss in order to be free. Girls who love horse books will find Ryan's treatment slightly different from what they might expect. Readers come to love the horses in this text by knowing them. They are not simply objects of affection but living, breathing entities with fears, desires, and instincts of their own. By the time this reviewer finished reading, she was certain that horses possess all of the qualities with which they are invested in this story. Young readers will learn empathy and compassion not only from the humans but from the horses as well. It is a story about the connection of all living things, and one can be thankful for the writers who recognize the importance of actualizing that concept.-Elaine J. O'Quinn.

Kirkus Reviews

Wide open space changes people, as 11-year-old Maya discovers in this novel of a young girl's growth from sheltered grandchild to independent young woman. Maya felt like a captive living with a grandmother who had shut herself off from the world after an accident killed her son and Maya's mother. After her grandmother dies, Maya goes to live with her Aunt Vi in the wide-open spaces of a Wyoming ranch. There, Maya learns the ways of a land that feels to her like an alien planet, forges a relationship with feisty Aunt Vi and finds her life changed by a tobiano Paint horse called Artemisia. Told in the alternating third-person voices of Maya and Artemisia, Ryan's tale is a beautiful portrait of a rugged land, within which people and horses sometimes find a bond. Maya, Aunt Vi and secondary characters are well drawn, as is the world of wild horses. Readers will learn much about horses, and even those who know nothing about them will cheer as Maya learns to walk, jog, lope and gallop. (glossary, websites, bibliography) (Fiction. 9-13)

School Library Journal

Gr 4-8-Maya, an orphan, copes with her strict grandmother's harsh rules by lying and sabotaging a revolving stream of housekeepers. Upon her grandmother's sudden death, the 11-year-old is sent to Wyoming to live with her mother's family, strangers whom she has been told are wild and worthless. Maya soon discovers that she was badly misled and that her relatives are warm and loving, teaching her not only about their remuda horses but also about the wild mustangs of the surrounding hills and plains. One mare in particular attracts her attention, for it was the horse tamed and loved by her mother before it was returned to the wild. When disaster strikes, the bond between the girl and the horse is tested, and at this point the book morphs into a survival story. Against enormous odds, Maya makes it to safety with the help of Artemisia, and through these experiences her connection to her family and to the natural world are secured. Both the descriptions of the mustangs' life and of Maya's growth from an angry self-centered liar into a kind and honest girl capable of making difficult decisions are handled with skill and realism. Admirers of Ginger Kathrens's Cloud: Wild Stallion of the Rockies (BowTie, 2001) and others of its ilk will love this exciting horse tale.-Ann Robinson, formerly at Moultonborough Academy Library, NH Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information.

ALA Booklist (Thu Nov 01 00:00:00 CDT 2007)

Since her parents' deaths when she was six, Maya, now 11, has lived a luxurious but wholly repressed existence with her paternal grandmother. Housekeepers have overseen her basic needs and supervised her homework, and Maya has made a game of driving off the ones who curry favor with Grandmother and watching as the others depart when the old lady's despotism overwhelms them. Then Grandmother dies, and Maya is whisked off to her mother's relatives in Wyoming, where her new life begins. Ryan parallels and foreshadows Maya's growth and change with glimpses of an exuberant herd of wild horses, a mothering mare, the stallion that leads the herd, and an adolescent stallion that must leave the herd to establish itself. The stories are quite cleverly wound together, and readers will understand much more about Maya's character from viewing it in relation to what happens to the horses. In spite of the book's character-driven core, there's lots of adventure here (both human and equine), and the pace never lags for an instant.