Dante: Horses of the Maury River Stables

by Gigi Amateau

Overview

Handsome but headstrong, a retired racehorse finds a second chance in this affecting, fast-paced novel told straight from the horse’s mouth.

When Dante’s Inferno is born early, on a February night, there are already great expectations for him. He may be the grandson of the greatest racehorse in modern times, but Dante’s start proves a rough one, both in life and on the track. When Dante fails as a racehorse, he ends up at a Thoroughbred rescue facility run by rehabilitating prisoners before being adopted as a project horse at the Maury River Stables. It’s not easy for Dante to make friends—horse or human—but slowly horses Daisy and Napoleon let him into the fold, and a student named Ashley begins to work with him to learn dressage and jumping in hopes that he’ll find redemption as an eventing horse. Can Dante put his fears aside and succeed on the cross-country course? Narrated from Dante’s point of view, this is a story that animal lovers will cherish.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780763673321
Publisher:	Candlewick Press
Publication date:	04/14/2015
Series:	Horses of the Maury River , #3
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	3 MB
Age Range:	8 - 12 Years

About the Author

Gigi Amateau is the author of two previous books featuring the horses of the Maury River Stables as well as Come August, Come Freedom; A Certain Strain of Peculiar; and Claiming Georgia Tate. A recipient of the Theresa Pollack Prize for Excellence in the Arts, Gigi Amateau lives in Richmond, Virginia.

I was born October 20, 1964, in Ripley, Mississippi. I cherish having lived my early childhood in Mississippi and having visited my grandparents there every summer and at Thanksgiving. Most of my growing up I did outside of Richmond, Virginia, in Mechanicsville. I went to college at Virginia Commonwealth University—an open, urban, diverse campus—and majored in urban studies and planning. My experience there was like living in a lab where we could study the city—its history, influences, and dynamic nature—every day. I still live in Richmond with my family. Not too far from our home we also keep our pony and some cows, so we have the city and the country in our lives.


I love writing and I love the creative process, though it’s tough to describe because the imagination seems to work differently with each story. Sometimes I feel as though I’m listening to a story unfold in my mind; sometimes I watch it and then write it down. Other times it’s as though the story is hidden inside the world around me, not so much the world inside me, and my delightful job is to uncover it. I find that writing comes easier to me when I connect my work with physical activity—gardening, walking, dancing, doing yoga, swimming, or even riding a horse.

I write about grandparents, mothers and daughters, horses, the earth, love, and personal faith because these things matter most to me.

Three Things You Might Not Know About Me:

1. One of my favorite poems is The Prayer, by Mikhail Lermontov, which I can recite in its native Russian.

2. I love to watch basketball, especially my VCU Rams.

3. Someday I might like to become a yoga teacher or a librarian or an ornithologist.

Editorial Reviews

Compelling and skillfully written.
—Kirkus Reviews

From the Publisher