Horsefly - Hardcover

Alice Hoffman

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0786823186 ISBN 13: 9780786823185

Publisher: Hyperion, 2000

Synopsis

Afraid of everything until her grandfather gives her a scrawny newborn foal she names Bug, Jewel is delighted to discover Bug's ability to fly and must overcome her fears in order to protect her equine friend from someone who would exploit the horse's talent.

About this title

From Publishers Weekly:

Hoffman's (Fireflies) fantasy about a girl who overcomes her fears contains a wise grandfather, a wicked circus owner, a herd of horses white as clouds and another horse the size of a Saint Bernard. Unfortunately, the abrupt transition from the realistic, leisurely opening of the story to its fantasy conclusion seems to crack the story in half like an egg. Jewel swears that "the one thing... she would never do, no matter what, was ride a horse." But the girl feels protective of Bug, a newborn runtlike foal, and Hoffman convincingly conveys the blossoming relationship between girl and horse. At a climactic moment, Jewel mounts Bug in response to a cruel classmate's challenge to a horse race; she can't stop Bug from running over a cliff and jumps off him. Here the tale takes a preposterous turn. In an unlikely scenario, while Jewel walks to the cliff's edge to check on the horse, "everyone else headed back to the school." Thus, only Jewel witnesses Bug unfurling previously undetectable wings. Later, during one of Bug's flights, a circus owner sees his gifts and abducts him. Timid Jewel single-handedly saves not only Bug, but also a herd of ponies trained by a woman who beats them. Hoffman unfolds her story with graceful language and a compelling voice, but the tale's swoop into fantasy may leave readers befuddled. Johnson and Fancher's dark and hazy paintings are appropriately mysterious, but do little to help make the fantasy elements of the story believable. Ages 5-9. (Aug.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal:

Kindergarten-Grade 3-This fantasy requires a very strong suspension of disbelief. Jewel is given a rejected foal to raise and discovers that it has wings and can fly. Unfortunately, an unscrupulous circus owner sees the horse and steals him. Jewel tracks them down that very same day, finds a costume in order to disguise herself as a circus performer, and by evening not only rescues Bug but also frees the other mistreated horses. The animals return with her to her grandfather's farm, and she and Bug fly happily ever after. Anyone who knows horses and riding may find it hard to enter into this fantasy since it violates so much of what they know. However, it is a story for dreamers and many children will love it for the good-versus-evil conflicts, the exciting events, and Johnson and Fancher's muted paintings that ably illustrate the story. Those who dream of riding on Bug's back and soaring through the clouds probably won't even realize that the plot of a lost animal found and rescued from the circus is hackneyed and trite.
Louise L. Sherman, formerly at Anna C. Scott School, Leonia, NJ
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Hyperion
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 0786823186
• ISBN 13: 9780786823185
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 48
• Illustrator: Steve Johnson And Lou Fancher