The Girl Who Loved Wild Horses

By: Paul Goble
(Goble, Paul. The Girl Who Loved Horses. Bradbury Press. New York, 1978.)

This is a story about following your heart for what you love. A young Native American girl follows her heart for her love of the wild horses. Her tribe would train horses to hunt buffalo but she preferred to have the horses run wild and free. It gave her a sense of freedom from her own life watching these animals. The young girl traveled with the horses while a storm hit her village and forced her to leave her family. After fleeing the village to not get hit by the storm, the young girl and her horses were lost for a year. When the young girl was found by two Native Americans she did not go with them she continued on her way with the horses. However, the young girl had an accident and fell off of her horse and the hunters helped her back to her village to her parents. When getting back to her village the young girl falls ill and says the only way that she will get better is by going back with her wild horses because she felt that they were part of her family. The young girl left her family to be with her horses and each year she would take a colt to her family for them to remember her.

This text does a great job at letting the reader step into the life of a Native American girl. The text does a good job at showing the reader different cultures and heritages. Many children wouldn’t be aware of Native American culture and how it may be so different than their own. This particular book would be useful in a classroom because the students can see how Native Americans live and some of the traditions that they have that are interesting.