Description

Winner of the Heart of Hawick Children's Book Award, 2017

City-born and bred, twelve-year-old Flip's new home is a farm on a remote Dutch island. Menaced by the local bullies and followed everywhere by a mysterious mute girl, he wonders if he'll ever adapt to life there – until the day a sinking ship leaves a horse drowning in the waves. Risking his life to rescue it, Flip is told he may keep the horse -- but only if he can teach it how to work for its keep. From that moment on a friendship grows. But it's a friendship that will be threatened and tested by the bullies, by a greedy hotel owner and by the power of a terrifying storm.

"Set in 1966, the book's island locale, plot, and characters are so well-defined that readers will be riveted to the narrative as it unfolds. A rare boy-and-his-horse story worthy of any collection." -- Booklist, starred review