Belle's Journey

Steve Pitt is a Toronto-based freelance writer and an award-winning journalist. He has written many young adult and children's books, including Day of the Flying Fox: The True Story of World War II Pilot Charley Fox.

Molly is a young girl who lives on a Canadian prairie farm. To get to
her piano lessons in town, she must ride eight miles each way on an old
farm horse named Belle. One day Molly’s father tells her that he
intends to sell Belle so that Molly can have a younger horse. Molly
becomes so excited about having a fast and frisky horse that she fails
to consider the inevitable fate of Belle, a horse supposedly too old
even for little girls to ride to town.

One day, while Belle and Molly are on their way home from a piano
lesson, a sudden blizzard catches them on the open prairie. Molly soon
becomes incapacitated from the biting cold and driving snow. Belle
carries on and only the old horse’s determination and experience with
the trail keeps them moving through the blizzard. Belle eventually
brings Molly home and both are saved from the winter storm. Molly’s
father reconsiders his decision to sell Belle and the old horse ends her
days as a pasture pet.

This book is a simple story beautifully told. Marilynn Reynolds’s
prose displays solid knowledge of prairie farms, old horses, and winter
storms. Stephen McCallum’s handsome illustrations are a perfect match
for the text. Highly recommended.