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#1: Horse Dreams: Backyard Horses

By: Dandi Daley Mackall

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Product Description

Fourth-grader Ellie can't stop daydreaming about her beautiful horse-the one she's been praying about for many years. She finds out that God does answer prayers, but often in different ways than we expect. Instead of the black stallion that races across her imagination, she gets to keep a spotted pinto horse in her backyard and tries to train her to peep through her bedroom window. God does more than Ellie could have imagined or dreamed . . .

Product Information

Format: Paperback
Number of Pages: 90
Vendor: Tyndale House
Publication Date: 2011
Dimensions: 7.00 X 5.00 (inches)

ISBN: 141433916X
ISBN-13: 9781414339160
Availability: In Stock
Ages: 8-12
Series: Backyard Horses

Publisher's Description

Fourth-grader Ellie James has a great imagination. She spends a lot of time daydreaming of owning a black stallion show horse and winning trophies in the horse show. But when the answer to all her dreams and prayers gallops into her life, will Ellie be able to recognize it? Join Ellie and her quirky family in their exciting, horse-loving adventures.

ChristianBookPreviews.com

In Horse Dreams (Backyard Horses series), Dandi Daley Mackall takes on the classic young girls' story of wanting a fancy show horse, but she gives it a little twist. Mackall's heroine, Ellie James, dreams of owning a stallion show horse and decides she's going to pray for several weeks about it to see if God will answer her prayers. By doing so, Ellie has opened the door for fears, frustrations, and good lessons in patience.

Horse Dreams is a short book that is easy to read, with short chapters that move the action along at a nice trot. Within the pages, the key characters interact realistically, although there are some clichéd personages, ranging from "that annoying teacher" to "that mean girl." Everything climaxes at the moment that Ellie goes to check on the pinto horse at the local animal shelter, and she realizes that this is the horse shes been praying for all along.

Ellie James is a daydreaming fourth grader who's stubborn and enthusiastic. Her actions throughout the story are that of any normal horse-crazy fourth grade girl, and her belief in herself is stronger than probably most girls her age. The other characters in the book either nicely compliment Ellie, such as her parents and her friend Colt, or completely clash, such as her female adversary Larissa.

Dandi Daley Mackall has once again aimed at the classic young girl story and has hit the target. The book is nicely paced, attention grabbing, and very often entertaining and funny. This novel would be great for girls between third and fifth grades because the main character is a fourth grader, the book is short, and the words are easy to read. Horse Dreams would make a great addition to any classroom or personal childrens library. Demelza Ramierz, www.ChristianBookPreviews.com

Product Reviews

#1: Horse Dreams: Backyard Horses 4.7 5 16 16

Charming tale Ellie James wants a horse. It's all she dreams about. When a horse suddenly appears, will Ellie realize that this is her horse ? Backyard Horses is a wonderful little series for horse lovin' girls ages 6-9. It is written in first person present tense, which was a bit hard to decipher at first. Sometimes I thought that Ellie was a rather over confident girl by the way that she talked, but I think that's partially due to the tense and first person point of view. I liked the side characters and her brother Ethan who was deaf, I thought it was a nice touch to have Ellie, her friend and her family all using sign language as part of their natural communication. Overall I would say that is a cute series that I wish I had around when I was much younger. I could relate to Ellie and how she didn't have a horse and all her other friend had tons of horses. A rather sweet book. I received this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. Thanks! August 29, 2012

Epic - A must read Horse Dreams is the first book in the Backyard Horses series By Dandi Daley Mackall. This book is a great and easy read. This book is definitely written for younger readers but readers of all ages will enjoy the story and love its Christian values. August 29, 2012

Simple, age appropriate tale of God's sovereignty "Horse Dreams" is a short, easy to read story about a young girl with a huge love for all things horses and a bigger than life dream of getting one of her own. Dandi Daley Mackall writes a sweet tale of prayer, the importance of it, and how God answers prayers. I loved that the author doesn't make prayer a "magic trick" but rather shows that God often chooses to answer our prayers in a way we don't expect or even want, but He knows is the best thing for us. A couple of other unique aspects of this book is that the main character's brother is deaf, so the author includes a lot of sign language. For instance, each chapter title is spelled out in sign language, and there's an alphabet chart at the back as well. There is also a decently expansive glossary of "Horse Talk" for those who aren't familiar with "that" language. :) I appreciated both of these things, as I love that the reader is encouraged to learn along the way. I think the book is probably perfect for the 6-12 age set, and is definitely geared that way. August 27, 2012

Wonderful Christian Fiction for Young Horse Lovers Backyard Horses was exactly the series I was looking for for my daughters, who love Jesus, love horses, and are in 2nd grade. Miss Mackall also wrote a series for older readers called "Winnie the Horse Gentler" and I tried that first but I'd recommend it for middle school students and up. Besides being harder to read, those books sometimes deal with harder issues that wouldn't be understandable by anyone younger than pre-teen. Backyard Horses, however, is a fairly new series and is written at around a 2nd/3rd grade reading level. Love, love, love this series! My daughters love Ellie, the heroine of the story! There are so far 4 books in the series and we started with book 1 in order to read them, well, in order. The heroine of the story, Ellie, is a sweet, oftentimes feisty, day-dreaming 4th grader. In the first book, she often day-dreamed about her own horse. She decides to do a "science" experiment... she'll "beg, cry, and pray" for a horse of her own and find out what way works best for getting horses. I don't think it's spoiling anything to say that God will answer her prayer... but in a different way than she imagined. I highly recommend this book to elementary school children. It's filled with a good story, important lessons, and a little girl who puts her hope in God. I also highly recommend Cowboy Colt, Chasing Dream, and Nightmare, the others in the series. By the way, you can earn this book for free by participating in Tyndale's Summer Reading Program through the end of August! August 1, 2012