Callie Shaw, Stable Boy Book

Callie follows her fierce determination to work with horses by posing as a boy named Caleb and getting a job in a stable.

School Library Journal

Gr 5-9Many people in her small, Depression-era, central Texas town, including Callie's Aunt Edna, who has raised the girl, believe that horse racing is the "devil's work." Despite this fact, 15-year-old Callie dresses as a boy and gets a job in the stables. She becomes involved in the moral quandary of gambling; the inequities of income; and a mystery that involves a doped horse, the unexplained death of another, and the disappearance of a third. The girl also encounters fixed races, suicides, and big winners and desperate losers. She wins the support and friendship of the track owner, who helps reunite her with her long-lost father. At novel's end, there is a possible romance between Callie and an up-and-coming young trainer. Alter tries to cover much ground in one story, which has a Horatio Alger tone to it. Nonetheless, the girl's true grit is admirable, and the tangled mystery and unusual characters will keep horse lovers turning pages.Toni Dean, Patchogue-Medford Library, NY