Storm Chaser by Chris Platt

Storm Chaser by Chris Platt

177 pages

Mark Twain Award

Not a bad book...about a girl and the horse she would give anything to be able to train, if her father would let her. Definitely a book for younger readers. (Mark Twains are great, but very juvenile...am ready for another great teen book.)

(from jacket cover)

Storm Chaser isn't mine, Jessie thought, and she never will be.

For thirteen-year-old Jessie, living with her family on the Wild Hawk Ranch in Nevada if often lonely. But she loves the horses her father and brother break in each summer to sell to local ranchers and rodeo competitors. This year she is determined to help train the horses, especially when she lays eyes on the wild paint filly she names Storm Chaser. When Jessie's father tells her she is still too young, she deliberately disobeys him by working with the filly behind his back. Then a fire destroys the barn and Jessie's family reluctantly turns their home into a vacation dude ranch to earn much needed money. Jessie enjoys having the vacationers around, but she becomes wary of Ariel, a rude, pushy guest who always expects to get her way. When the girl announces she wants to buy Storm Chaser, Jessie's already fragile world begins to crack. How can she keep 'her' beloved paint from being sold?