Rodeo Princess

August 3, 2015
Cattle-ranching life provides the backdrop for Higgins’s addition to the Gravel Road Rural line, written at a second-grade level. Jade is plenty busy juggling high school, chores, horse training, and tending to her father and brothers while her mother is stationed overseas in the military. But she’s also in love with her former best friend Amy, who ended their friendship after a shared kiss three years ago. Keeping her secret from everyone—including the boyfriend who cherishes her—weighs heavy on Jade, and things reach a breaking point when she is scheduled to compete against Amy in the barrel-racing event at the annual rodeo. Heavy use of sentence fragments (“I wash dishes. Take care of the horses. Check Freddie’s leg”) makes for choppy reading, but a hopeful if somewhat rushed ending suggests that better days lie ahead for Jade. Ages 14–up.

September 15, 2015
Grades 8-12 Jade Dobbs just wants to barrel race her horse at the annual rodeo, but she is responsible for the household in place of her mother, who is serving in Afghanistan. Feeding and cleaning for her father and older brothers while they manage the family's ranch are unrewarding and unappreciated. In fact, her brother Seth ensures her servitude through blackmail: he knows that she is gay and threatens to out her. Their small Montana community would not be accepting, so Jade suffers in lonely silence, hiding behind the facade of a heterosexual relationship. When Jade's horse is injured, she is compelled to accept the offer of a loaner horse from Amy McNair, her combative, former best friend and the other person who knows the truth about her sexuality. This insular high/low story is told in a terse text that successfully conveys Jade's claustrophobic existence. Though the book ends on a hopeful note, the author resists an easy fix, requiring the reader to absorb the unsatisfactory reality of Jade's situation.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)