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The Hungry Place

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The Hungry Place 
By Jessie Haas 
Boyds Mills Press, 2020. 215 p. 

Princess is a pony that lives a charmed life. She sleeps in a safe barn with her mother, and she has an owner that adores her. Rae is a girl that loves ponies—not horses, ponies—and is afraid that she will never get to ride one due to the fact that owning and riding ponies is expensive and her single dad doesn’t have very much money. When Princess’ owner has a stroke and the trainer and his wife steal from the pony farm and leave all the ponies to starve Princess is not sure she can fight the other tougher ponies for the few bits of grass left in the field. When Princess and Rae finally meet they both must learn to trust each other—and with their own past emotional scars that is a little tricky for both of them. Yet, being together can be the healing that they both need. This book goes beyond most of the other juvenile fiction “horse” books that are out there. There is depth in what happened to both Princess and Rae and readers will cheer as the two stories come together.
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