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The Georges and the Jewels Book One of the Horses of Oak Valley Ranch Written byJane Smiley
· Knopf Books for Young Readers
· eBook · Ages 10 and up
· September 8, 2009 · $6.99 · 978-0-375-89414-5 (0-375-89414-4)
A Pulitzer Prize winner makes her debut for young readers.
Jane Smiley makes her debut for young readers in this stirring novel set on a California horse ranch in the 1960s. Seventh-grader Abby Lovitt has always been more at ease with horses than with people. Her father insists they call all the mares “Jewel” and all the geldings “George” and warns Abby not to get attached: the horses are there to be sold. But with all the stress at school (the Big Four have turned against Abby and her friends) and home (her brother Danny is gone—for good, it seems—and now Daddy won’t speak his name), Abby seeks refuge with the Georges and the Jewels. But there’s one gelding on her family’s farm that gives her no end of trouble: the horse who won’t meet her gaze, the horse who bucks her right off every chance he gets, the horse her father makes her ride and train, every day. She calls him the Ornery George.
From the Hardcover edition.
Starred Review, Publishers Weekly, July 20, 2009: "A lyrical meditation on horses, families, and the vicissitudes of peer relationships among girls."
Review, The Courier-Journal (Louisville, KY), October 3, 2009: "'The Georges and the Jewels' is filled with fascinating details about the care and training of horses, and Abby is a refreshing heroine in today's snark-filled times."
Review, Chicago Sun-Times, October 18, 2009: "Smiley’s intricate and sophisticated knowledge of horses shines throughout this book, making it a guaranteed winner for horse-loving youngsters."
Review, LATimes.com, September 27, 2009: "I have never admired [Smiley's] writing as much as I do in the first of what promises to be a series of books for children...'The Georges and the Jewels' can easily take its place on the shelf along with the great horse stories of childhood."
Review, The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, October 2009: "Readers...will be happy to mount up and ride along."
From the Hardcover edition.
JANE SMILEY is the author of many books for adults, including Private Life,Horse Heaven, and the Pulitzer Prize-winning A Thousand Acres. She was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 2001. Jane lives in Northern California, where she rides horses every chance she gets. She is also the author of four other novels for young readers in the Horses of Oak Valley Ranch series:The Georges and the Jewels,A Good Horse,True Blue, and Pie in the Sky.
