The Girl Who Loved Wild Horses

By:Pail Goble
Multicultural Literature
~This book is a book based on Native American culture. It has beautiful, colorful illustrations. The book portrays a young Native American girl who lives in a tribe where the people follow the buffalo. She has a special connection with the horses and often spent most of her time in the meadows with them. One day, she falls asleep in the meadow. A storm came up quick, she awoke to thunder and spooked horses. The girl grabs hold of a horse and tells them to stop, but the horses can't hear her above the thunder, so she holds on as the herd gallops on. Finally, the thunder was behind them, but the girl did not recognize her surroundings, they were lost. When she woke the next morning, a beautiful spotted stallion was there and told her he was the leader of the wild horses here, and that she and her herd were welcome to live here. Her people did not know what happened to the girl and their horses. A year later, two hunters saw the girl riding a colt, beside a beautiful wild spotted stalion. They tried to get to the girl but the wild spotted stalion was protecting her, until her colt stumbled and she fell off. The hunters took the girl back to the village. She was happy to see her parents but missed the stallion and her wild horses so much she became ill. Finally, her parents agreed that she should go back and live with the horses so she would be happy. Every year she cam back to see her people and brought her parents a colt. Then one year she did not come back, but hunters saw a beautiful mare with the wild stallion and they believe the girl finally became a wild horse.
~This would be a good book to use when studying Native Americans. Have students go through the books illustrations and write down all of the things they see that they usually associate with Native Americans. Have older students pick 2 or 3 of these subjects or objects to research and see if Native Americans really did use these objects and in what ways.