Firehorse - Hardcover

Wilson, Diane Lee

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1416915516 ISBN 13: 9781416915515

Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry Books, 2006

Synopsis

When fifteen-year-old Rachel is forced to move to Boston in 1872, she is furious. She is also lonely, for her beloved horse, Peaches, has been sold. But Rachel soon finds a horse that needs her, and needs her desperately: The Governor's Girl, a famous firehorse, has been badly burned. Rachel gets permission to care for the Girl in a stable behind her house.

As she cares for the injured horse,Rachel dreams about becoming a veterinarian. But her father, a newspaperman, has very definite ideas about where women belong: only in the home. Father also has definite ideas about Boston's inadequate firefighting equipment, as an outbreak of suspicious fires erupts. To make things worse, horses everywhere begin falling ill -- and it is horses that power the city's fire engines. Another spark might send the whole city up in flames.

With cinematic vividness, Diane Lee Wilson brings the very real Great Boston Fire to life in this exciting and inspiring story of a strong-minded girl determined to decide her own future.

About this title

About the Author

Diane Lee Wilson is the author of Black Storm Comin’ (which won a Spur Award for Best Western Juvenile, was a Booklist Editors’ Choice, a VOYA Top Shelf fiction pick, a Notable Social Studies book, a Bulletin Blue Ribbon book, and a Book Links Lasting Connection), Firehorse (which was a Booklist Top Ten Mystery/Suspense pick and an ALA Amelia Bloomer Project pick), Raven Speak, and Tracks. She lives in Escondido, California. Visit her online at DianeLeeWilson.com.

From Booklist

*Starred Review* It's 1872, and 15-year-old Rachel often escapes the confines of corsets and social strictures by going for gallops on her beloved horse around her small-town Illinois home. When her father moves the family to Boston and the horse is sold, she has a difficult time adjusting to her father's demands of ladylike behavior and her mother's coaxing her toward womanly pursuits. The author of Black Storm Comin' (2005), Wilson paces the story well, with tension building: an arsonist is at work setting fires in Boston and the horses needed to pull fire equipment are falling ill at an alarming rate. At first only her grandmother seems to understand the importance of Rachel's dream of becoming a veterinarian, but soon she has other allies, and a path that appeared to be blocked begins to open before her. The love interest and the mystery that are integral to the story are secondary to Rachel's pursuit of her goal, which begins with helping one firehouse horse recover from burns. The novel's finest achievement, though, is the convincing depiction of family dynamics in an era when men ruled the household and women, who had few opportunities, folded their dreams and put them away with the linens they embroidered. Carolyn Phelan
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

About this edition

• Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry Books
• Publication date: 2006
• ISBN 10: 1416915516
• ISBN 13: 9781416915515
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 336