Sylvia knows she’s different from her classmates, but it doesn’t bother her, except when they pick on her. What she really cares about are horses. When she discovers Kansas, a horse trainer who is building a stable a short bike-ride away, it seems her only problem is her parents. Sylvia’s psychoanalyst mother thinks horses are a substitution for her as-yet undeveloped sexuality and her financial planner father cannot justify the expense. Sylvia sees a psychiatrist, who diagnoses not emotional or psychological issues, but Turner’s Syndrome, which accounts for her lack of growth and other abnormalities. Even better, Dr. Cleveland is a horse nut who boards her horse with Kansas. Will Sylvia be able to overcome her parents’ resistance and grow enough so that her grandfather will buy her the horse?
Ketchen is a marriage and family therapist.
Source: The Association of Book Publishers of BC. BC Books for BC Schools. 2011-2012.