From School Library Journal
Grade 4-6-Jason Kightly, bored and lonely, feels stifled in the hot city apartment he shares with his hardworking single mother. His only escapes are daydreams of horses and imaginative speculation about the father he has never known-until a mysterious stranger offers him a week's worth of night rides that plunge him into ancient adventure stories involving equines. He rides Pegasus with Bellerophron; attends the centaur Cheiron's school for heroes, where he meets the sulky, adolescent Achilles; climbs inside the Trojan horse; and rides Poseidon's hippocampus and a flying wooden horse from the Arabian Nights. The last adventure, an encounter with a unicorn, brings him closer to the truth about his father, preparing him to demand and ultimately to accept his mother's reluctant revelations. Problem novel and fantasy don't quite mesh here; Jason's therapy seems too pat. Still, the book could serve to introduce the classic stories, and horse and fantasy lovers will find it to be an easy-to-read diversion. Each chapter is illustrated with a computer graphics illustration that combines original artwork with images from world art.
Margaret A. Chang, North Adams State College, MACopyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Gr. 4-6. Raised by a single mother who wants to forget the past, 11-year-old Jason constantly wonders who his father is, why he was never around, and what it would be like to have a father in his life. From its realistic city setting, the story suddenly shifts into a time-travel fantasy, with Jason riding a series of legendary horses and meeting heroes and gods of Greek mythology in his quest for an understanding of fathers, heroes, and the wholeness of family. This novel has its awkward moments as well as a measure of success. The plot is intelligently conceived, but the characters are not entirely convincing. When Jason's mom finally reveals that he will never know his father because before Jason was born she joined a gang, did drugs, slept around, and never knew the identity of his father, the admission seems more like a necessity for the story than a revelation of her character. Still, the scenes with Jason hiding inside the Trojan horse or meeting the young heroes-in-training at Cheiron's cave give a fresh perspective on Greek mythology. For larger collections.
Carolyn Phelan
