Phillip loves to help take care of the horses in his father's livery stable, and when the earthquake strikes before dawn one April day in 1906 and the rest of the family is forced to flee, he takes on sole responsibility for the animals in the midst of fire, collapsing buildings, and lack of water. Authentic detail, a fast pace, sympathetic characterization, and the drama of saving the horses make this a worthwhile story about one boy's bravery amid devastation.

Phillip MacMillan, 12, wakes with an uneasy sense that something isn't right. He goes to check on the family's livery stable, and within minutes his world turns topsy-turvy. It's the 1906 earthquake and, through Phillip (who stays to care for the horses while his father takes the rest of the family to safety), the reader is there—for the heaving that knocks horses to the ground, for the collapse of his house, for the parade of fleeing, panic-stricken San Franciscans, for the fire, for the bombing intended to stop its spread. Phillip succeeds both as a witness and as a character (he has a way with animals and is the kind of boy who can be trusted with a gun); the immediacy of his experience makes this an exciting historical sidebar. Two caveats: the realism may disturb younger readers; and it's not clear why Phillip's father doesn't take him, and the horses, when he leaves the first time—or why he almost leaves the horses a second time, after Phillip has risked his life for them. Historical note. Illustrations not seen. (Fiction. 9-12)"