This riveting novel by Maggie Stiefvater (the Wolves of Mercy Falls trilogy) explores loyalty, love and the strength needed to challenge long-held beliefs.
What happens when 2,000-pound flesh-eating horses rise out of the sea? On Thisby Island, they are harnessed and ridden in the thrilling and deadly Scorpio Races every November. Sean Kendrick's father died nine years ago while riding one such water horse. Now 19 years old, Sean is a four-time winner of the Races, and a genius with horses of all kinds.
Puck Connolly and her two brothers have also been orphaned by one of the capaill uisce (pronounced "copple ooshka"), the water horses. Puck rides in the Scorpio Races to keep her oldest brother from leaving for the mainland, and for the chance to win enough prize money to keep their house. She is the first female ever to ride in the Races, and the only one to ride an island pony, rather than one of the capaill uisce. Sean rides for ownership of his beloved Corr, a blood-red water horse, the very one his father was riding when he was killed. Sean also rides for a house and a stable of his own. But Sean and Puck also ride for love.
In spare, haunting prose, the author describes the bleak yet magical island landscape. Readers will root for Sean and Puck, rivals who learn to trust and care for each other through the course of the racing season. Stiefvater has crafted another winner, one you may well want to read all over again. --Lynn Becker, host of Book Talk, the monthly online discussion of children's books for SCBWI.