By Jessie Haas
The gentlest first-chapter-book about a real horse, told half from the horse's side.
Bramble is a horse who is thoroughly bored of walking in circles giving riding lessons. What she wants is one person of her own. Maggie is a girl who wants a horse more than anything. The book is the two of them sizing each other up and deciding, slowly, to be a pair.
This is the real on-ramp for a horse-lover who is ready to leave picture books and try chapters. The chapters are short, the pictures are everywhere, and the whole thing is about the one thing they daydream about anyway: getting a horse of their own. Half of it is told from Bramble's side, so a child who has been imagining what their pony is thinking finally gets a book that does it for them. Finish it and there are two more waiting.