SuitabookRiding freedom
Pam Muñoz Ryan, Nuria Molinero, Philippe Poirier, Hélène Georges, Dominique Delord, Brian Selznick
- Reading
- Read together in manageable sittings, pausing after the injury or other difficult passages to check how your reader is feeling. The historical information after the story can offer a separate opportunity to compare the fictionalised account with Parkhurst’s life.
- Themes
- Gender and opportunity: Charley is banned from the stables, runs away, disguises herself as a man and becomes a stagecoach driver. The plot links Charley’s disguise and stagecoach work to her pursuit of a life with horses.
- Adventure and historical detail: The story is set in the mid-1800s and includes stable, ranch and stagecoach life, followed by additional historical information about Parkhurst. The historical details support the adventure setting, and the after-story material provides further information about Parkhurst’s life.
- Worth knowing
- Charley runs away from an orphanage, is seriously injured and loses sight in one eye. These events may be worth knowing about if separation from care or physical injury is a sensitive subject for your reader.