Book Review: THE GIRL WHO REMEMBERED HORSES by Linda Benson

First Paragraph: Sahara awoke to a pounding inside her head. Thundering. Loud. Was it rain against the tent? Rain would bring relief from the dust and the smothering heat. She blinked, rubbing sleep from her eyes. She heard nothing. The sound must have been from the dream, the dream she had again and again.

Oh, Esteemed Reader, I've lost track of the number of girl-and-her-horse stories I've reviewed at this blog. However many it's been, it's too many for a grown man in his early thirties:) Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed Emma's River and Whirlwind and Linda Benson's The Horse Jar (I gotta say I like the Spanish title better: La Alcancia De Los Suenos, or, The Piggybank of Dreams).

I tease my writer's group that if I'm not happily published by a certain date, I'm going to break down and write my own girl-and-her-horse story. I'll call it The Hoof-print on my Heart:) I tell you all this so you will know it took a bit of convincing for me to agree to read yet another book about a girl and horses.

What convinced me was three things. The first was that this particular girl-and-her-horse book was written by our good friend Linda Benson, who was one of the first authors ever to appear here. I enjoyed her previous girl-and-her-horse and girl-and-her-dog books enormously and I admire her writing. Second, this particular girl-and-her-horse book is set in the world of the post-apocalypse, which made me curious. Third, I wanted to know more about Musa Publishing.

Musa Publishing is primarily an electronic publisher and why not? Most of the reading I do these days is on my Kindle. Ironically, I actually read a paper copy of The Girl Who Remembered Horses:) But I recently downloaded The Wrong-Coloured Dragon by Lynne Reid Banks, read it, and loved before I ever realized it had been published directly through Amazon rather than a major publishing house. Because what attracted me to the book was the author and the promised content, not the means of publication. I couldn't tell a difference between that book and an electronic copy of The Return of the Indian, the property of a major publisher.

It's an exciting time to be a writer with so many publishing opportunities available and I hope more established authors set off on their own, independent of publishers. It can only bode well for readers that so many more books become available without being narrowed through the ever-consolidating choke-points of major publishers. It's a power-to-the-people kind of thing.

Meet Sahara. She's the girl who remembered horses. See how Benson effortlessly introduces us to her on page 2:

Sahara hated being treated like a baby. She was almost thirteen.
"I'm here, sister."
Laurel appeared anxious to be off. "We have little meat. I will go down along the dry river bed and look for rabbits again. Stay in camp, start the fire, and don't forget to stir the stew."
Sahara made a face. Stay in camp. Build the fire. Stir the stew. Her chores were so boring. She wished she could do something important. Why couldn't she have adventures like her older sister?

Sahara isn't a fully-realized three-dimensional character at the end of this passage--it will take a whole book to get her there, but we know what kind of character she is. She's an impatient thirteen-year-old with a taste for adventure who feels oppressed by the older people in her life. A character such as this can't help but get up to some mischief. Before Benson starts in with the world of the post-apocalypse and all the new things the reader may not have encountered before, she makes sure the reader knows who the main character is and what kind of story this is likely to be. 

It's important she ground us, because The Girl Who Remembered Horses is an unusual story with a lot going on. Mankind has all been wiped out by a huge epidemic, sort of like the Native Americans just before Columbus arrived. The details of the fall of our society are never made quite clear, but I like to imagine this story is set sometime after Stephen King's The Stand. As there's a rough and grizzled character referenced who's name is Roland, I wonder if Benson isn't also a fan of King's work:)

But this isn't the world of Ashfall, where everyone's trying to eat and/or rape everyone else. The survivors of Benson's apocalypse are mostly well-behaved folks, with the possible exception of Dojo, who really does seem to love the idea of murdering baby horses. It's refreshing to read a vision of the post-apocalypse in which mankind is rebuilding itself in a way that might just be better than its current iteration. I mean I wouldn't have minded if there had been some zombies, but The Girl Who Remembered Horses a nice change of pace in a genre typically dominated by pessimism. 

Not that the lives of Sahara and her nomadic clan are without realistic struggles, chief among them travel and keeping everyone fed. No one remembers horses, but Sahara's been having dreams about them, and it's good timing as the clan comes across a pack of wild horses. Like Fiver in Watership Down, Sahara's been struck by divine inspiration and she has an idea the clan could train the horses to be ridden, which might be easier than walking about and having their junk hauled by dogs. 

Can Sahara convince her clan to listen to someone as young as she, or will the murderous Dojo bathe in the blood of wild horses? I can't tell you without spoiling, so that's where we'll leave it. Except I had to chuckle, mostly because I've been a fan of Linda Benson for years now, and it amuses me that when she envisioned the darkest vision of the future it was a world without horses.

I think it speaks volumes about Linda Benson that for her, the key to mankind's survival in the post apocalypse is a kinship with animals. And the key to that kinship: a book, of course. Thankfully, an old woman has kept a collection of books, including a book on how to train horses:

The woman hummed to herself. It was hard to know if she had heard or not. "This modern age," she grumbled. "No one seems to think books are important. Everyone experimenting with new things--ways to grow crops and make shelters. No one comes to the old woman on the hill anymore."

Do yourself a favor, Esteemed Reader, and pick up a copy of The Girl Who Remembered Horses. It's a good read for tweens and the rest of us. As always, I'll leave you with some of my favorite passages:

Sahara hoped Laurel's hunt would be successful. Rabbits and small game were scarce this season. Deer, too. She could barely remember the last time she'd eaten venison. Coyotes yodeled in the distance. She cursed them silently. They hunted, too, but at the expense of her full stomach.

Ash was only nine, but surely old enough to hear about the realities of life.

From the eating hall, the smell of baking bread and spicy herbs mingled with the odor of many humans.

A few pale strands of light lingered to the west.

She gulped, drinking in the cold air.



STANDARD DISCLAIMER: All reviews here will be written to highlight a book’s positive qualities. It is my policy that if I don’t have something nice to say online, I won’t say anything at all (usually). I’ll leave you to discover the negative qualities of each week’s book on your own. 

Book of the Week: THE HORSE JAR by Linda Benson

I must admit that before I became a middle grade ninja I had never read a book about a girl and her horse. I’m a boy and I’ve mostly stuck with boy books. But The Horse Jar is my third book about a girl and her horse since starting this blog. What’s amazed me is how unique each story has been and if not for my ninja duties, I might have missed all three. I’m beginning to think that a-girl-and-her-horse might be its own genre, like romance. And just as there are endless variations on the boy meets girl stories, or boy meets boy stories for you fellow Rick R. Reed fans, there appear to be endless variations on girl-and-her-horse stories. I’m not complaining, mind you. If you are a writer with a girl-and-her-horse story you think is good enough to be my Book of the Week, please email me at once. This seems to be the place for them.
First, my review: The Horse Jar is at least as good as Linda Benson’s Finding Chance, maybe better. Get to the library or online and acquire this book by any means necessary. It’s a wonderful middle-grade read for kids and adults alike. Its story is a unique parable that will lead to a great discussion for parents and kids and I’m going to save my signed copy so that if Mrs. Ninja and I one day have a daughter, I can give her this book. And no, Mom, if you’re reading this, we are not pregnant. Okie doke, that concludes the review portion of this review. Let’s talk about the book:

Meet Annie Mitchell, The Horse Jar’s protagonist. She’s a young girl who’s not afraid of hard work and knows the value of saving money. I love her already, and she loves horses. No doubt, if Annie were real, she would read and love Whirlwind and Emma’s River by Alison Hart. In fact, she’s read every book on horses at the school library, so I’ll assume she read Alison Hart's books as well.

If I may start discussing craft even earlier than usual, I had a writing professor who used to shout at us that “character = desire.” This is the same professor I told you about who claimed he wrote better sentences than Tom Clancy, and I suspect he was at least partially inebriated when he shouted this. He would have approved of Annie Mitchell, who is all desire. Annie’s one dream is to own a horse. For the first part of this book, it’s all she talks about and all she thinks about.

Fellow writers, take note. Linda Benson knows it isn’t enough to simply tell us that Annie loves horses or to have Annie sit and dream of owning a horse, although she does both of these things. Benson has to show us Annie’s want for a horse through her actions. Real desire involves sacrifice. For the first forty pages of The Horse Jar, every action Annie takes is a step toward her goal of owning a horse. She saves money from gifts and odd jobs in, you guessed it, her horse jar. In the first chapter, the first time we meet Annie, she is checking the classified ads and calling around town to see if anyone has a horse for sale for the amount of money in her jar. And at last she finds Red, an older horse available in her price range.

So Annie buys the horse, hurray for hard work and saving, right? Of course not! Her desire has not truly been tested and no real obstacles have been overcome to achieve her goal. If character = desire, than story = obstacles in the path of attaining that desire. Annie has the money for a horse, but she lives in town and one can’t simply keep a horse in the spare bedroom. A horse needs a pasture, a stable, carrots, horse chow, shoes, a saddle, and all kinds of other stuff, but above all, a horse needs a place to stay. Annie’s father is a teacher and therefore poor, which may or may not be a social comment by Benson. If it isn’t, I’ll make it for her: why the heck are our teachers so poor? We’d need fewer prisons if we took a fraction of the money we throw away on our for-profit prison system guaranteeing plenty of us will be locked up and invested it in our schools. Anywho, Mr. Mitchell can’t afford stable costs and Annie doesn’t have the money.

If I might modify my professor’s formula, I would say character = desire + choice. Faced with this obstacle, what does Annie choose to do? Does she give up on her dream of horse ownership and use her money for college or for a car as her father suggests she do? Not a chance. Annie and her best friend, Chelsi, fix up a vacant lot Annie can rent for only $25 a month with a makeshift stable and fence. Annie vows to do even more odd jobs to pay the rent and buy a saddle and a horse brush and other horse-related paraphernalia. Annie works hard and sacrifices to overcome the obstacle in the path of her desire.

So Annie gets her horse, the end, right? Nope. The story cannot end until Annie faces what Robert McKee calls the crisis decision, that moment in which her desire will be most tested. Everything must be put on the line and our protagonist’s choice in that key moment tells us everything about her and her story. Batman has conflicting desires: he wants to rid Gotham City of crime and remake it in his own image, but he wants to do it without killing anyone ever. Batman beats up criminals and saves the city, but this alone is not a story. Batman must make the crisis decision, his values must be tested in a crucible: he can kill the Joker and save Gotham, but violate his own moral code. Or he can subdue the Joker, knowing the psycho clown is destined to break out of Arkham Asylum once again and kill more Gothamites. Batman’s choice in this pivotal moment defines him as a character. Also, I love Batman.

Major Spoiler ahead. If you keep reading past this point, I am about to ruin a key portion of The Horse Jar for you. Here is the moment of crisis: Annie gets her parents to agree to help her finance the lot and makes the phone call to claim her horse; she just has to pick him up and he’s hers. But just before she can, tragedy strikes. Chelsi has a sweet little dog named Spunky who chases after the girls from the yard, runs into the street, and is hit by a car. Spunky doesn’t die, but he needs surgery Chelsi’s family cannot afford because her father was recently laid off. The surgery only costs a few hundred dollars, but they don’t have the money, and Chelsi’s father instructs the vet to put Spunky to sleep.

Annie has entered the crucible. She has the money to save Spunky, but it will mean giving up her horse. The choice she makes here will define who she is and what The Horse Jar is really about. Her heart’s greatest desire is on the line, but so is her friendship with Chelsi. Chelsi never says as much, but would you stay friends with someone who could have saved your dog and didn’t? An innocent puppy’s life hangs in the balance! This is gripping drama! This is what great fiction is all about. This choice is what takes what might otherwise be a series of events and forms them into a cohesive whole; a story.


STANDARD DISCLAIMER: Book of the Week is simply the best book I happened to read in a given week. There are likely other books as good or better that I just didn’t happen to read that week. Also, all reviews here will be written to highlight a book’s positive qualities. It is my policy that if I don’t have something nice to say online, I won’t say anything at all (usually). I’ll leave you to discover the negative qualities of each week’s book on your own.

7 Questions For: Author Linda Benson

Linda Benson is the author of the middle grade novels Finding Chance and The Horse Jar. Click here to read my review of Finding Chance, which I absolutely loved. I’m thrilled to have such a talented writer here today. In her own words, Linda Benson’s “writing tends to focus on the importance of nature and animals in the lives of children. I've realized how enriching the human-animal bond is to children (as well as adults). This is why I often write about young people and their connection to animals.” In addition to being a writer, Linda Benson has worked at a zoo feeding raw meat to lions and jaguars, written lots of country songs, worked at a race-track grooming thoroughbred racehorses, owned a saddle shop, worked as a realtor, raised spotted donkeys, and been a children’s librarian. 

And now Linda Benson faces the 7 Questions:

Question Seven: What are your top three favorite books?

Oh gosh, how can I possibly pick just three? I cannot, but I'll try. A Thousand Splendid Suns, by Khaled Hosseini, author of The Kite Runner, because I was amazed that a man could write so eloquently about women and their feelings, and because I sobbed. The Incredible Journey, by Sheila Burnford, (which I read way before any of the movies were made) because it's about the relationships between animals and humans, and I sobbed. (Do we sense a pattern here?) Charlotte's Web, by E.B. White, because it espouses my views on life (and yes, I take spiders outside, send them on their way and wish them a good life.

Question Six: How much time do you spend each week writing? Reading?

I do not have a set schedule, and don't really like schedules. But if I'm working on a project, either writing or revising, I can spend hours and hours each day writing, and the rest of the time thinking about it. I also read a lot. Books, newspapers, magazines, online, I read for pleasure and to learn things.

Question Five: What was the path that led you to publication?

I wanted to write for children since the second grade, but did lots of other things first. The confidence I gained from going back to college in mid-life, and working as a children's librarian at the same time, converged to point me on my way. And truthfully, after the events of 9/11, I decided I wanted to write for children to give them some hope in the world. Then I wrote a novel, then another one, attended classes and conferences, found some critique partners, and just kept at it. When you find something you love to do, you stick with it.

Question Four: Do you believe writers are born, taught or both? Which was true for you?

I think writers can be taught, if they have the desire. I think most writers start out as readers, and when they read something wonderful, they think "wow, I wish I could write like that." Then they just have to learn how. The more we write, the better we get at it.

Question Three: What is your favorite thing about writing? What is your least favorite thing?

Hmm, favorite thing - working for myself, making stuff up, writing about what I want. Least favorite thing, so much butt-in-chair time when I'd rather be outside.

Question Two: What one bit of wisdom would you impart to an aspiring writer? (feel free to include as many other bits of wisdom as you like)

Believe in yourself. Keep learning your craft. Read - a lot! If you really, really love what you're doing, don't give up!

Question One: If you could have lunch with any writer, living or dead, who would it be? Why?

Right now? Today? Kathi Appelt, author of The Underneath (which I almost put on my list of favorite books, because I LOVED it.) She is an amazing author, and a cat lover and animal lover, and I know we would find a lot to talk about ;-)

www.lindabenson.net

Book of the Week: FINDING CHANCE by Linda Benson

Fair Warning: This review contains some spoilers.

It’s to be another little girl and her beloved animal story this week, Esteemed Reader. The-child-and-their-beloved-animal story is almost its own genre, like the buddy cop story, but usually not as many people get shot (animals, not so much). Some classics in this subgenre include Where the Red Fern Grows, Charlotte’s Web, and The Old Man and The Sea. Wait. Scratch the last one. There are many variations as to how writers have handled these stories, but the best put their focus on the humans and how their relationship with the animal impacts their life and relationships with other humans (assuming the animal in question isn’t a human-like main character such as Garfield).

The bigger the impact made in the protagonist’s life, the more significant the protagonist and animal’s relationship is. Hooch isn’t just Turner’s dog pal, he helps him solve crime, find love, become less neurotic, and so on. If ever you find a story that focuses on the animal’s life rather than the human’s, I can pretty much guarantee that animal has mostly human characteristics and is a variation on Garfield (like Wilbur in Charlotte’s Web). Books are written and read by humans and so this is a prejudice that is unlikely to change.

Meet Chance, the animal half of the animal/human relationship in Finding Chance, which is a wonderfully charming book you’re going to love. Chance is a lonely dog. There is no one to feed her or take care of her and she is forced to live inside a tree, scrounging for food and depending on the occasional kindness from strangers. One day she meets Alice, a twelve-year-old girl, who does nice things for her. Chance’s quality of life improves. Imagine that this, and only this, were the plot of Linda Benson’s novel. Would anyone be interested in reading it? It might work as a picture book, but I doubt such a story would resonate with many readers in a full length middle grade novel.
 
Now take this version of the story: Alice is a lonely girl who just arrived in Fox Creek California with her mother. She becomes friends with Heron, a local girl. She discovers Chance and takes care of her. This version of the story is better than the one in the previous paragraph because it’s about a human who is lonely and takes actions to end her loneliness, as opposed to a dog getting it’s day by mere chance, so to speak. Even so, this more human-centric story is still missing something.

Oh, we can add in details. Alice is a poet. Her mother is working on a novel and is often too busy for Alice (I wonder if there’s any autobiography in that). Alice loves books. The local librarian is a nice man who might be interested in dating her mother. As interesting as all of this is, it isn’t a story until a character has a goal, takes steps toward it, faces an obstacle, and is changed by the event.

Benson knows this, of course--she’s quite talented :) --and around the edges of her central story of a lonely dog and a lonely girl finding one another, she builds the true conflict of Finding Chance. I’m not going to give the whole thing away, but the final confrontation in this book is between Alice and her mother and it will move the reader. Alice’s relationship with the dog informs and finally forever changes this larger and more fundamental human relationship in a way that resonates on an emotional level. Only once this occurs does Finding Chance become a story about a greater universal truth that readers can relate to. And Chance’s life improves as well, so take heart animal lovers, it’s not all about the humans—just mostly.
 
The only other thing I want to examine about Finding Chance is its chapter endings. Finding Chance has 21 chapters and is 112 pages long, making for an average chapter length of 4-5 pages. Even so, Benson finds a way to end every chapter on a point of interest to ensure her readers turn to the next page without delay.

Here is a fantastic post from Linda Benson’s blog in which she discusses manuscript notes from her agent. Her agent, Joanna Volpe’s advice: “Amp up chapter endings. Don't succinctly close each chapter. Instead, ask a question, introduce a new complication, make us wonder, so that we cannot turn off the light and go to sleep, but Have. To. Keep. Reading.”
 
See if you can spot that advice in play in the following chapter endings from Finding Chance:
 

1. She climbed the broken concrete steps, pushed open the heavy door, and went inside.

 

2. ...Alice heard something. It rustled in the underbrush behind her, as if ready to leap out at any moment.

 

3. She cupped her hands to her mouth and hollered down the tracks. "A big train isn't going to come roaring down on us, is it?"

 

7. The hair prickled on the back of her neck-an eerie feeling. Something darted quickly in front of her and jumped into the thick underbrush to hide.

 

11. Rustling around in the knapsack for a sandwich, she blurted out a question before she could stop herself. "Mom, am I adopted?"

 

16. "...He says he's going to call the pound pretty soon if someone doesn't claim her (Chance--MGN)."

 

18. Bracing herself against the howling wind, she stepped out of the warmth of the cabin and into the relentless rain.

 

19. She looked up ahead for the trail. All she could see was darkness.

STANDARD DISCLAIMER: Book of the Week is simply the best book I happened to read in a given week. There are likely other books as good or better that I just didn’t happen to read that week. Also, all reviews here will be written to highlight a book’s positive qualities. It is my policy that if I don’t have something nice to say online, I won’t say anything at all (usually). I’ll leave you to discover the negative qualities of each week’s book on your own.