Copyright
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.
DreamWorks Spirit Riding Free © 2018 DreamWorks Animation LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Cover design by Ching Chan.
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First Edition: April 2018
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Library of Congress Control Number 2017961687
ISBNs: 978-0-316-47636-2 (paper over board), 978-0-316-47634-8 (ebook)
E3-20180228-JV-PC
Contents
Cover
Title Page
Copyright
Diary Entry
Chapter 1
Diary Entry
Chapter 2
Diary Entry
Chapter 3
Diary Entry
Chapter 4
Diary Entry
Chapter 5
Diary Entry
Chapter 6
Diary Entry
Chapter 7
Diary Entry
Diary Entry
Today was the worst best day ever.
First, the best part. School is out for the summer! I mean, what’s better than that? Nothing that I can think of. Nothing! And nothing is the whole point of summer. Not a thing. No school books. No packed lunches. No homework. Nowhere to be when the rooster crows. Nothing. Doesn’t that sound wonderful?
Doing nothing was my perfect summer vacation plan until the best day turned into the worst.
This is exactly what happened:
After shouting, “Meet you at the barn!” I left my friends in front of school. Spirit was already waiting for me by the old oak tree.
I wrapped my arms tightly around my wild stallion’s neck and gave him a big smooch on the smooth caramel-colored hair just above his warm black nose. He snorted at me, so I kissed him again, when I really knew he wanted the apple in my book bag.
“I’m just teasing you,” I told him, and gave up the red delicious treat. Spirit gobbled it in one big bite, and we were off.
We took a quick stop home to drop off my schoolbag. Adiós, books and pencils and notebooks! See ya next year.
Abigail had this big idea to start the Summer of Spirit (which she is calling Summer of Boomerang) with a horse spa day. Pru loved that idea and thought her horse, Chica Linda, could use some grooming. For Pru’s last birthday, her dad gave her this amazing grooming kit. It had a curry brush, two soft brushes, a hoof pick, and special mane and tail brushes in a beautiful carved wooden box. Pru wanted us all to share the first time she used it, so she saved it for today!
Abigail had used her allowance to buy some rainbow-colored ribbons for her horse, Boomerang, but she could never decide which color matched Boomerang’s tail the best, so she decided to wait to use them until today, too. There were plenty for all our horses. Even Spirit, if he wanted ribbons.
I was the only one who didn’t have something special to contribute to spa day, and I really wanted to share something, too. So after I shoved my book bag into a corner by the door, I started looking around the house.
I could take more apples for a snack. But that didn’t seem very special.
With a final glance around the kitchen, I shouted out to Spirit through the window, “Be right back!” and went upstairs. There had to be something good that we all could use.
Fluffy towels for drying off after the horses’ wash? My dad might not like it when I brought back soggy towels covered in horse hair.
In my desk drawer, I had a mud mask that Abigail’s brother, Snips, gave me for Christmas. It looked like black gunk in a jar. I’d never opened it, so I thought maybe it would be a good addition to spa day. We could do mud masks for the horses! I unscrewed the lid. Ack! It smelled horrible. When I looked closer at the glass container, I could see bits of rotten food stuck in the mud. He had obviously filled the jar with mud from the pig pen! Yick. I sealed the lid and dropped the whole thing in the trash.
I’d never make Spirit do a stinky mud mask on spa day. Besides, he was already covered in mud from his night with the herd. (I sometimes wonder what they do when they are together.) Seriously, Spirit could use a walk through the river, or maybe a bath.…
Oh, that gave me an idea.
Aunt Cora had moved out of the house and into the inn, but there were a few of her things left in a box downstairs. I knew exactly what I needed.
Skipping two stairs at a time, I returned to the kitchen. In the back of the pantry was Cora’s box. I bet she’d even forgotten about it. I dragged the box into the light and dug down deep. There were a couple of frilly aprons, a pair of silver candlesticks, a photo of her and my dad when they were young, and there… at the bottom… was a crystal bottle filled with a light-purple liquid.
I held up the bottle toward the window. The crystal glittered in the afternoon sunlight, casting rainbows on the kitchen walls. It was the prettiest bottle I’d ever seen. For as long as I could recall, I’d seen it on her dressing table by her hairbrush and hand mirror. I knew when it was empty, Aunt Cora could refill the beautiful bottle at the general store in
