Holly, a 10-year-old girl burdened with guilt after her mother's tragic accident, discovers a mysterious little lamb with white fur, a blue head, and blue legs. Naming her Angie Blue, Holly brings the lamb home. Together, they meet friendly talking animals and embark on enchanting escapades that bring joy and laughter back into Hollyâs life.
My Blue Lamb is an instant classic and a heartwarming tale celebrating the magic of friendship and the power of healing..
146 pages. 8-12
Holly, a 10-year-old girl burdened with guilt after her mother's tragic accident, discovers a mysterious little lamb with white fur, a blue head, and blue legs. Naming her Angie Blue, Holly brings the lamb home. Together, they meet friendly talking animals and embark on enchanting escapades that bring joy and laughter back into Hollyâs life.
My Blue Lamb is an instant classic and a heartwarming tale celebrating the magic of friendship and the power of healing..
146 pages. 8-12
Holly couldnât sleep.
She tossed and turned in her bed, her mind swirling with familiar and colorful images. This one was a happy memory: her mother laughing in the warm light of a summer day, someone speaking into a loudspeaker, the crowd cheering.
Hollyâs mother was beautiful. She was so graceful when she rode Dark Prince in a race. She had won her event, making the day even better. Her expensive perfume mixed with little pearls of sweat on her neck and forehead. Holly climbed behind her and held her tight as they rode back towards the stables. Even though Hollyâs face pressed uncomfortably against the cold, hard metal of the trophy, she wished the moment would never end.
But that was a year ago. Before Holly turned ten. Before everything changed.
The young girl thrashed in her bed again. She tried counting sheep, a technique her mother once recommended. âOne, two, three, four . . . four, three, two, one.â
âNope. The sheep are doing it again!â How was she ever going to fall asleep if they kept turning around and going back over the fence?
Holly sat up and turned on the light. She couldnât stop the memories from rushing into her head. This next one always made her smile.
When Holly was nine, her father organized a picnic to celebrate his wifeâs birthday. The three of them lounged on a cozy blanket in the meadow by the stables. Holly could still recall all the smells and sounds surrounding them: the fresh-cut grass, the blooming flowers, the chirping crickets. To any onlooker, they seemed like the happiest family on the face of the earth.
After they finished eating, Mr. Houx told his wife to close her eyes. She waited with Holly until he came back with her birthday present: a magnificent coffee-brown stallion with a lean, muscular body. Holly remembered how Dark Prince shivered when her mother gently moved her hand along its shiny coat.
Then Mr. Houx grabbed Holly and threw her on top of his broad shoulders. He pretended to be a horse, neighing as he jumped around. Holly laughed so hard her stomach hurt. How silly her father used to be.
That was before.
The young girl was still wide awake. She got out of bed and walked around her room. She decided to open the window. Maybe the fresh air would help her fall asleep.
Before, Holly used to greet her father at the door every night when he came home from work, and every night they talked and played before her bedtime. She adored him, and in return, his eyes twinkled with love whenever he looked at her. He would often start laughing for no apparent reason. Holly looked forward to those joyful outbursts so she could laugh with him, for no reason at all.
Holly remembered one particular night when her father came home and scooped her up in his big arms. His large chestnut-colored hand brushed against her caramel skin to shut her eyes, and he said with his usual deep and reassuring voice: âHolly, Holly, Star Bright, first star I catch tonight . . .â
Holly wiggled out of his arms and giggled as she raced up the stairs to her bedroom. Mr. Houx chased after her and she hid under the sheets. He called out for his Star Bright until Holly threw back the covers and yelled, âHere I am!â
They both laughed.
Mrs. Houx came into the bedroom reprimanding her husband for getting their daughter all wound-up before bed.
âOh, Edward. You are incorrigible!â
She patted his head as if he were a bad school boy. âWell, Millie, what are you going todo about it?â
But Millie Houx's scolding of him was all in good fun. Eventually, the three of them always hugged and laughed.
That was then.
â Â â Â â
Holly nervously chewed on her left braid as she sat back down on her bed, her scrawny arms wrapped around her skinny legs. She rocked back and forth, trying to calm herself. She turned off the light, stretched out her legs, and hugged her pillow. She already knew her next memory was bound to be painful, but she couldnât stop it from flooding her thoughts.
It was a Sunday.
Mrs. Houx was riding Dark Prince, her favorite horse, in the green field behind their house. She was practicing for the competition the following day and was determined to win.
Holly knew how much winning meant to her mom. That morning, Mrs. Houx had pointed to a photograph of the trophy on the front page ofthe local newspaper with a smile on her face.
âHolly darling, wouldnât the trophy look great on my shelf next to all the others?â she asked her daughter.
Holly nodded and hugged her mom.
Later that day, the girl tried to keep busy, but none of her games or books seemed entertaining enough. So, she wandered outside to watch her motherâs last practice before the race.
It was hot and humid. Clouds were gathering in the sky, announcing a thunderstorm. Holly sat on the white fence, admiring her mom and her always-perfect posture. She was careful to remain quiet since she knew how much Mrs. Houx disliked being disturbed during practice.
Holly noticed how nervous Dark Prince was and how her mother struggled to control him when, all of a sudden, a bee flew towards Holly and buzzed around her ear.
Holly had always been afraid of wasps and bees, even though her father taught her to stand still until they lose interest and fly away.
But Holly was terrified. She ignored her fatherâs advice and began to spin around in circles flapping her arms wildly in the air.
Mrs. Houx became distracted by her daughterâs frantic behavior. She caught the girlâs eye and silently glared at her.
Holly instantly froze, but the bee got tangled in her woolly hair.
Then it stung her.
Holly let out a piercing scream, which startled Dark Prince. The powerful horse broke into a sudden gallop, catching her mother by surprise.
Mrs. Houx fell headfirst from her saddle onto the ground. Holly ran to her, expecting her to get up, brush the dirt off her clothes, and call her horse back with a click of her tongue, as she usually did. But Mrs. Houx didnât move. She lay on the ground, a strand of her golden hair covering her pale and lifeless face.
After spending many long months in the hospital being seen by the best doctors, Millie Houx was told she would never walk again. And as time went on, she withdrew to a lonely world where there was little room for her husband or her daughter. She spent her days in her wheelchair, gazing out the window at the meadow where she once rode her horses. The stables were now empty. Her five horses, Dark Prince, Bandit, Blue Bear, Cookie and Flash Flood, were nothing more than a painful memory.
Edward Houx tried hard to cheer up his wife, but all his efforts were in vain. He worked longer days. He came home exhausted and sad, unable to cope with his daughter's grief and his wifeâs rejection.
How sad their lives had become.
â Â â Â â
Holly was restless. As the wind blew, the bedroom curtains gently rippled under the moonlight.
She caught a glimpse of the branches on the tall oak tree outside her window. The branches projected spooky shadows on her bedroom wall.
She watched the shadows sway back and forth, their elongated shapes resembling eerie, creeping hands. They seemed as if they wanted to reach out and take her to a dark and sinister place.
Again, she tossed in her bed.
The freezing temperature jolted her back to reality, and she got up to close the window. The sky looked like it was about to snow, and Holly loved fresh snowfall.
The girl thought about how she would go outside in the morning to make snow angels. She remembered how her mother used tosay that thinking about happy things for tomorrow could help bring sleep.
Holly left the curtains open and went back to bed, staring out the window as the first snowflakes began to fall. They carried the promise of something amazing about to happen.
Holly counted them. âOne, two, three .. .â
Her eyes fluttered and closed as she drifted off.
When a young girlâs mother is seriously injured in a horseback riding mishap, Holly Houx blames herself in this middle grade fantasy.
Hammered by the twin tongs of grief and guilt, Holly, age 10, is unable to sleep after her momâs accident. Lonely and forlorn, Holly longs for a best friend. Contemplating her loss one winter day, Holly goes outside. Lost in thought, Holly rouses herself to find that sheâs caught in a snowstorm. She discovers a little lamb. The lambâs head and legs are âblue like the sky on a sunny day.â Holly dubs her new furry friend âAngie Blueâ and takes her home.
Together, Holly and Angie engage in several enchanting adventures. They meet all kinds of fantastic creatures, from an Indiana Jones-type red squirrel explorer to a platypus to a sombreroed worm. But thereâs no real linkage between any of the creatures or why Holly and Angie wind up meeting them. They just sort of pop into different worlds thru holes in the floor and such, meet a new creature and then poof! Theyâre back in the Houx home or yard. Mom Houxâs main role in the story, post-riding accident, seems to be telling Holly to wash up. Dad Houx doesnât put in another appearance until the Epilogue.
While it has potential, this book isnât quite ready for prime time. Itâs creative and the characterizations are cute. Illustrations are well done. However, the lack of a cohesive storyline with a distinct beginning, middle and end is problematic. So is weak linkage between story elements. Itâs not entirely clear why Holly and Angie keep bumping into all sorts of creatures. It's pretty random. For example, why do we â or Holly and Angie - care about singer Dolly Bonbonâs plans for a comeback? The lack of a central unifying theme may leave some readers scratching their heads. The Epilogue makes up for some lost ground. Whether or not readers will stick around that long is open to question.