Dream of Night

For me, it's sometimes hard to find books that I think are interesting and still clean. So when I was first thinking about starting this blog, I knew I wanted to write reviews. The idea was still floating around in my mind but it took me this long to read a book that I wanted to review.



"Dream of Night" by Heather Henson

Summary:

Dream of Night is a Thoroughbred born to race. But when his leg starts hurting, he starts losing, and no one wants a racehorse who doesn't win. After being sold and re-sold more than once, he gets kept chained to a stable wall without food, water or fresh hay. Even after all the abuse, he would stay strong and fight back.

Shiloh is a twelve-year-old girl taken away from her home after being abused by her mom's boyfriend. She never stayed in a foster home for long because she was "...too angry...". She still wanted to live with her mom again, so she would stay strong and fight back.

Night and Shiloh share the same story and they both end up at the foster home of Jessalyn -- she's their last chance before the state takes over. But Jessalyn is strong too. Even though she knows that Night and Shiloh will be hard to take care of, she's determined to make things work.


Thoughts:

The story is definitely a good one about love, trust, and hope. I really liked how it was told from the main characters' different perspectives since you can understand each of their feelings, thoughts, and history much better. But the plot for a girl and horse friendship has been used so many times and in the same way, it seemed a bit unoriginal.

Even though the suggested age is 8-12, I still liked it and would recomend it especially to someone who likes horse stories.

Rating:   G -- It does have some references to alcohol, tobacco, and abuse, but the language is completely clean.


Star Rating:  3 1/2

"Dream of Night."

 She says it out loud, and the black horse raises his head from the ground.

"That's your name."

The black horse blasts air out his nose. A dragon breathing fire. A monster. He definitely looks like a monster. She will scream back if he tries to scream at her.

"Dream of Night." She says it again, and then, "Not bad."

The name is perfect, really.