The God of Animals by Aryn Kyle

This story is told by Alice Winston, a 12 year old girl who lives on a horse ranch in Colorado. Ever since she was born her Mom has been "sad" and has stayed in her room. Her sister ran away to marry a cowboy and it is just her dad and herself. They must find a way to bring in money so they keep the barn and horses. Then one of Alice's classmates is found dead in the canal. Alice has a hard time dealing with this and ends up in a fantasy world where she believes Polly was her best friend. Alice also starts calling one of the 7th grade teachers and talking to him every night. Her father starts teacher a young rich girl to ride and has hopes that she will bring her rich friends around too, but that doesn't happen. Soon he starts boarding horses for other rich women. This starts a relationship between Alice's father and one of the women who comes around. Then one of the women gets hurt while riding her horse and things get worse around the ranch.

Overall I have to say that I enjoyed it and didn't want to put it down. I felt sad for Alice. She never really had a mother and then her older sister leaves and doesn't contact them much. She is lonely and not sure where she fits in. Her father doesn't pay her much attention, she isn't good at riding like her sister was and isn't bringing in any money from the horse shows. Her sister eventually comes home with her husband and Alice has a hard time dealing with that at first too. The story itself isn't one of those uplifting stories and some parts were sad (especially one incident towards the end) but I did find it very interesting and would be willing to read more by the author.

new author/fiction/305pgs