Moonsilver - Softcover

Kathleen Duey

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0689837046 ISBN 13: 9780689837043

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Children's, 2003

Synopsis

An orphaned girl, a unicorn, a journey - follow Heart on her quest as she travels into the realms of legend in this thrilling new fantasy for young readers. Heart has no family. Found abandoned as a baby, she now lives a hard and lonely life in the dusty village of Ash Grove. Then one day she finds a scarred, skinny horse in the forest. Against the wishes of her meanspirited guardian, Simon, Heart adopts the mare and names her Avamir. When she realises Avamir is in foal, Heart is thrilled. And so too is Simon - now he has two horses he can sell to the slaughterhouse instead of one. But when the colt is born, Heart finds him weak and with a strange bump on his forehead. A bump that begins to crack open, to reveal a silver point beneath...Heart realises that the horses are actually unicorns, magical creatures from ancient legend. But why are they here? And how is their destiny linked with Heart's own? Being creatures of legends, Heart is afraid that if the unicorns aren't lead away from Ash Grove they will surely be captured and killed by the superstitious villagers. Can she find a way to protect them, and the only love she has ever known?

About this title

About the Author:

Kathleen Duey has written more than forty books for children. The Unicorn's Secret is based on a dream she had when she was at school. She lives in southern California.

From School Library Journal:

Gr 2-4-The first title in a projected series of beginning chapter books introduces reluctant readers to Heart Avamir, an abandoned girl with no memory of her origins, who wakes up one day in a strange feudal community. She lives with the hard-hearted curmudgeon who found her, but it is the neighborhood apothecary, Ruth, who names and befriends her. When the girl finds a wounded mare limping around untethered, she claims it for her own and nurses it back to health despite her guardian's protests that the animal would be better off sold for slaughter. In addition to the limp, the mare bears a deep scar on its forehead, which Ruth acknowledges but is a bit too quick to dismiss. Readers will already have guessed that the mare is really a disfigured unicorn and that Heart, who was found wearing a blanket emblazoned with unicorn figures, is destined to care for the animal. Duey uses simple but evocative language; few words are more than two syllables long. The text is set with wide leading and interspersed throughout with moody, evocative black-and-white illustrations. A cliff-hanging ending rounds out this portion of the narrative. This is a good alternative for children who have outgrown easy-readers but who are not quite ready for longer, denser works of fiction.

Catherine Threadgill, DeKalb County Public Library, Atlanta, GA

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Simon & Schuster Children's
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 0689837046
• ISBN 13: 9780689837043
• Binding: Paperback