Customer Reviews

Wild Girl

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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 desire to belong.

--- Reviewed by Norah Piehl

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!

Wild Girl should be on the reading lists of every aspiring or established author of horsey fiction.

It's not that it's amazing. It's just a good story, centered on a likable girl with realistic problems that have nothing to do with a horse of her own plot. The horse in question is not the second coming of every wonder horse in fiction. She's just a young filly that doesn't quite know what's expected of her, and is as equally scared as she is curious. Like most horses in the world.

Lidie arrives in New York knowing little English, and hardly knowing the father and brother that arrive to meet her. There is enough understandable awkwardness to go around, and Lidie is left feeling about as cold as the New York winter she's suddenly walked into from her Brazilian sunshine. It doesn't help matters that her family remembers her as a seven-year-old girl, obsessed with Disney and the color pink. Lidie's done some growing up, and these things were cast aside years ago, but she hasn't grown up enough to come out and easily tell her father and brother who she is, what she likes, and what she's capable of.

To make matters worse, nothing is exactly easy for Lidie on her first day of school. Language barriers create some horrifying memories, and she bolts, convinced that she's never going to fit in. Poor Lidie's got a lot on her plate, so when they drive out to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania to pick up a couple of horses, she finds a bit of a kindred spirit in Wild Girl, a filly that's been on a similar journey.

In the end, filly and girl are both missing something. They eventually find what they're looking for. It's a sweet book, with none of the usual grating horse story components you'll usually find.

Wow! What a great story! The protagonist, Lidie, is a lovable character and not just because she's horse crazy. The emotional turmoil is heartbreaking at times when she leaves her native Brazil and moves to Queens, NY to be with her father and brother who work at a racing stable. They still think she is a seven-year-old who loves Snow White, while Lidia is 12 and, unknown to her father and brother, rides very well. Being at a new school where no one understands her language, and she knows very little English, Lidia is overwhelmed.

A new horse at the stable named Wild Girl (Lidia's dead mother's nickname for her as well) helps her overcome all the new obstacles and bring the family together.

This is a "must read" for all young readers and horse lovers of all ages.

A lovely, sweet book that's relatively easy to read, yet anything but simplistic in its exploration of the relationships experienced by a girl and by a filly. I would have found the school scenes and the evolution of the girl's feelings more plausible if she had been 9 or 10 years old and in 4th grade, not 12 and in 6th grade. The short, impressionist chapters written from the point of view of the filly are very, very nicely done. The book may still leave absolute horse nuts hungry for more horse stuff. It's a far more elegant and enriching read than many other books, especially horse books, of similar length and reading level. Reading it might give insatiable readers of horse series a taste for higher literature!

This book is the story of a beautiful horse named Wild Girl and a girl named Lidie from Brazil. More than anything, she loves to ride horse fast! Wild Girl is a calm, gray, white and black horse that you would not expect to go fast, but she can really run! When Lidie turned 12, she moved to a farm in Queens, New York to live with her dad and brother, Rafael. Her dad and brother still think of her as a little girl they once left behind in Brazil. She needs to show them what a great rider she is, so they will realize that she's an older girl now and that she can truly handle a horse. Family and friendship are really what this incredible story is about. This amazing and fascinating story would be a fantastic book for horse lovers and students that enjoy reading fiction.

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.

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.

Lidie hasn't cried since her father and brother left for America when she was seven. She has learned to be patient, living with her aunt and uncle in Brazil, waiting for the day her father would send for her. When he finally does, it's not the reunion she expected. Her father and brother, who now work training racehorses, don't know her like they used to. They think her favorite color is still pink and that she loves Snow White even though she's now in sixth grade. Worst of all, they don't realize she already knows how to ride a horse. School isn't much better, since Lidie's English is still pretty poor. But it is through Lidie's connection with one special horse - Wild Girl - that she might finally find her way. Wild Girl is a beautifully written novel that transcends the notion of a "horse book" or an "immigrant family story." It is as compelling as it is heartfelt, and readers will have to work hard not to identify with Lidie and her horses. The spirit of this book will stay with you.

It was a great boot to read esp.. if u like horse. Also the girl love horse and was brave. she knows about riding with no help!!!