Wild Girl

After Lidie's mother dies, her father and brother immigrate from their native Brazil to the US, leaving Lidie behind with her aunt and uncle. Lidie is happy enough with her aunt and uncle, riding her uncle's horse, but she longs to be reunited with her family. After years of hard work and scrimping and saving, Lidie's father and brother, Rafael, send for her to join them in America. Excited, but nervous, Lidie embarks on a new part of her life. She has to face attending school in a language she's not fluent in and rebuilding a life with a family she hasn't seen in years. But Lidie is strong and faces her challenges head on. Wild Girl by Patricia Reilly Giff gets its name from a horse Lidie's father owns. When he saw the horse was named Wild Girl - a nickname his wife had called Lidie - he knew he had to buy it. Wild Girl turns out to be just what the family needs to bring them back together emotionally after being apart physically for so long. Horses and horse racing are the backdrop for a story of immigration and love of family in this book. When Lidie starts school in the US and struggles with the language, my heart went out to her, because I knew just how she felt. I loved the way her teacher reached out to her and her classmates accepted her. I hope children who read this middle grade book will learn some compassion from their actions. I also enjoyed the family dynamics in Wild Girl. Lidie's father wasn't good at expressing his emotions. The reader always knows of his deep love for Lidie, but she doesn't and the scene when she figures it out brought tears to my eyes. I was never a "horsey" girl, so I wasn't sure this book would be for me, but found that I really enjoyed it. I think young girls, especially those who love animals will enjoy it too.

My 9 year old son and I read this book together. He couldn't put it down and didn't want it to end. I struggle to get him to read with me, especially chapter books, but this one was perfect for him. It was a simple story line with some new words for him. "If your child loves horses they would love this," my son says. Great!

Twelve-year-old Lidie has spent the past several years imagining what life in America would be like. Her father and older brother, Rafael, have lived in America ever since her mother died when Lidie was seven. Although they left for New York after the incident, Lidie stayed behind in Brazil with her aunt and uncle, waiting for her father to send for her. Now it's time for Lidie herself to head to America, and she has mixed feelings. She will miss the bright colors and bold tastes of life on her uncle's farm and in her aunt's kitchen. She will miss the challenges of school. Most of all, she will miss her favorite horse, Cavalo, whom she loves to ride like the wind. Meanwhile, as Lidie is making the long journey from Brazil to New York, so is another girl --- this one a filly from South Carolina. She is mistrustful of most humans, is terrified of cats, and longs more than anything to return to her mother. But there are other plans for her as she too leaves her home and heads north to New York. When Lidie arrives at her father's house, she is rather nervous. But her anxiety soon gives way to disappointment when she realizes that her father and brother think that she's still seven years old! They want to buy her snow boots with bunnies on them, and they've decorated her room with Disney characters. Worst of all, they don't even know that she is an excellent horse rider, possibly even better than her brother, who's training to be a jockey. They don't seem to know her at all. School is also a challenge --- the subjects are easy, but the English words she has studied don't help when she has an emergency, like really needing to use the bathroom. However, when the filly named "Wild Girl" arrives for Lidie's horse trainer father, things start to turn around in Lidie's life as she begins to develop a connection with the horse. But will this newfound friendship be enough to help the skittish filly feel at ease in her new home? And can Wild Girl help Lidie show her father and brother who she really is? WILD GIRL smoothly alternates between chapters told from Lidie's point of view and those that reveal, in impressionistic prose, the experiences of the horse. Readers will be quick to pick up on the parallels between the two stories and surprised to see how well they fit together. Of course, Patricia Reilly Giff's novel will have great appeal to horse-mad readers, girls like Lidie who have photos and drawings of horses tacked up on their bedroom walls. But WILD GIRL shouldn't be dismissed as merely another "horse book." It also provides an insightful glimpse into the immigrant experience, particularly for the large number of immigrants who come to America after immediate family already has been established here. The difficulties of finding your place within a family that seems alien, of deciphering new norms at school, of holding on to the things that make you special --- these topics greatly enrich WILD GIRL and will speak to anyone who has ever felt a de

WILD GIRL tells of Lidie, who lives in Brazil and dreams of going to live with her father and older brother in New York. When she's twelve she leaves to join her family at their stable job at a famous racetrack - and her story and that of a foal born on a farm and journeying to its new home provides a concurrent saga of facing change.