Moonsilver (The Unicorn's Secret #1) - Softcover

Duey, Kathleen

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0689842694 ISBN 13: 9780689842696

Publisher: Scholastic Inc., 2001

Synopsis

Heart Trilby has no family. She lives a hard and lonely life in the dusty village of Ash Grove -- until she finds a scarred, skinny mare in the forest. Against the wishes of her guardian, mean-spirited Simon Pratt, Heart adopts the mare and names her Avamir. Heart is thrilled when she realizes Avamir is in foal. But when the colt is born weak and disfigured, Simon decides to sell Heart's beloved horses to be slaughtered by the town's soapmaker. Can Heart find a way to protect them -- and the only love she has ever known?

About this title

About the Author

Kathleen Duey’s works include the middle grade American Diaries and Survivors series, as well as the well-reviewed chapter book series The Unicorn’s Secret and its companion series, The Faeries’ Promise. She is also the National Book Award–nominated author of Skin Hunger. She lives in Fallbrook, California.

From School Library Journal

Gr 2-4-The first title in a projected series of beginning chapter books introduces reluctant readers to Heart Avamir, an abandoned girl with no memory of her origins, who wakes up one day in a strange feudal community. She lives with the hard-hearted curmudgeon who found her, but it is the neighborhood apothecary, Ruth, who names and befriends her. When the girl finds a wounded mare limping around untethered, she claims it for her own and nurses it back to health despite her guardian's protests that the animal would be better off sold for slaughter. In addition to the limp, the mare bears a deep scar on its forehead, which Ruth acknowledges but is a bit too quick to dismiss. Readers will already have guessed that the mare is really a disfigured unicorn and that Heart, who was found wearing a blanket emblazoned with unicorn figures, is destined to care for the animal. Duey uses simple but evocative language; few words are more than two syllables long. The text is set with wide leading and interspersed throughout with moody, evocative black-and-white illustrations. A cliff-hanging ending rounds out this portion of the narrative. This is a good alternative for children who have outgrown easy-readers but who are not quite ready for longer, denser works of fiction.

Catherine Threadgill, DeKalb County Public Library, Atlanta, GA

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Scholastic Inc.
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 0689842694
• ISBN 13: 9780689842696
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 80
• Illustrator: Rayyan Omar