Phoenix

By Kimberley Brubaker Bradley

Reviewed by Mai Macrossan

Kimberley is the author of the Newbery Medal winning  The War That Saved My Life which is aimed at older middle grade readers. Here is the start of a new series, Ride On,  for readers aged 9+ who love horses. Her writing is characterised by memorable characters and a great depth of feeling deftly conveyed.

Harper’s life just exploded. Her parents are getting a divorce and eleven-year-old Harper and her mother are starting again—in a cramped house, in a new town, where everything feels unfamiliar, including the riding stables next door. Harper has never been around horses before. And no, she does not want to learn to ride. Then a truck dumps a starved and neglected horse right in Harper’s yard. One look at the horse’s huge eyes and skinny body and something inside Harper unlocks. She names the horse Phoenix, and she will not give up on him. Will this be Harper’s first step towards new friends? Towards riding?

Its a challenge for a story about horses to keep a reader who has no interest in horses reading without a break until the very end. I could not put this book down even though my interest in horses is minimal. Harper’s situation is so movingly conveyed, the characters are so real, full of their own recognizable quirks. Harper herself is emotionally in such a vulnerable and mixed up state that her immediate adoption of the horse makes sense on all sorts of levels.

The story is set somewhere in the USA, some distance from Knoxville where they used to live. All the discomfort of starting a new school, living in a strange cramped little house, not having her own things around her, constantly meeting new people, missing her erstwhile best friend, all this and then this wonderful horse struggling for survival ikeeps the reader hooked for all its 176 pages. It’s not long but it certainly packs a punch.

A great read for all horse lovers obviously and also for anyone who enjoys a heartfelt real story.

Teaching Notes

Text Publishing 2026

Kimberley Brubaker Bradley