Heirloom Quality Paintings and Lyrical Language Unite in Unforgettable Story of a Young Girl’s Coming of Age

Award-winning picture book will be handed down for countless generations

Tess is a ten-year-old farm girl who loves freedom and adventure and dreaming. Over four seasons’ time, she and her workhorse companion, Star, learn from “the school of the wild” as they create a dream home by the sea out of driftwood and castaway treasures. In these moments, Tess’s thoughts of envy and self-doubt disappear, as does her secret unhappiness that she lacks the fine show horses her peers have.

Dreams change and time passes until one day, Star discovers his proud draft horse ancestry. In the face of nature’s fury, Tess uses ingenuity and courage together with Star’s spirit and power, to prevail in a heroic rescue. The realization that they are “good enough” just being themselves is profoundly felt as horse and rider are forever changed.  This transformation resonates throughout Carnes’ vivid oil illustrations and leaves readers simultaneously awed and gratified.

With master storyteller Ernest Pugh narrating this timeless story prefaced by the words of John McCutcheon’s song “Like Water From a Another Time” on the accompanying CD, it is clear that author and illustrator Susan K. Carnes has struck gold with My Champion. Indeed, the book won a gold medal in the “Spirit” category from Moonbeams.

For more information or to order autographed copies, please contact the North Country R.I.D.E. office at (218) 879-7608.

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My Champion by Susan K. Carnes; Fiction; Hard cover; audio CD included; $25

Author and artist Susan K. Carnes created My Champion from pieces of her life. As a child, she explored the shores of Lake Superior astride a workhorse from her family’s Wisconsin dairy farm. She understands the connection between girls and horses and, even more significantly, the importance of feeling a part of something bigger than yourself.