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humanaevitae
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| Posted: May 30 2007 at 2:49pm | IP Logged
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I'm looking for a review of the book "My Friend Flicka" by Mary O'Hara. Who has read it? 
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Nicole-Zane 10, Elizabeth 7, Xavier 4, and John Patrick 2
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Celeste
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I read it several times as a child. Loved it. I think I was in the seventh grade. It's not all sweetness and light, iykwim; some scenes are hard. There's a gelding scene that upsets the boy (I remember it partly because I had to look up gelding, then I had to look up a word in that definition, then I had to look up a word in that definition. . . . Eventually I got it . . . vaguely. There might be some coarse language, too.
Celeste
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JennGM
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Since I (and Celeste) am a city girl, that made the book harder to read for me. I had to look up words, too. I can't remember if it was this book or another that used the word *itch for a female dog. I had to look it up.
But I enjoyed the book, and like Celeste, I read it many times.
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aussieannie
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There are quite a few books in the whole series.
My Friend Flicka Part 1 & 2
Thunderhead Part 1, 2 & 3
Green Grass of Wyoming Part 1, 2 & 3
I read them as a girl and loved them. I found the 3 books of Thunderhead and the 3 books of Green Grass of Wyoming at a 2ndhand shop - a great, cheap find. I now need to find the two Flicka books...
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MarieA
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I read Flicka and the other books in the series several times when I was 11 or 12. I loved the books.
(I was a horse-crazy girl and read anything about them.) 
I also read a British story about a girl and her pony. It was a favorite and I read it many times. My husband and I lived in Colorado when we were first married and the Flicka books do such a wonderful job of describing the mountains.
Fly-by-night by K. M. Peyton (Now that I am thinking of it, I need to dig out my tattered old copy for my dd. She will love it!) 
Marie
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MarieA
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I read Flicka and the other books in the series several times when I was 11 or 12. I loved the books.
(I was a horse-crazy girl and read anything about them.)
I also read a British story about a girl and her pony. It was a favorite and I read it many times. My husband and I lived in Colorado when we were first married and the Flicka books do such a wonderful job of describing the mountains.
Fly-by-night by K. M. Peyton (Now that I am thinking of it, I need to dig out my tattered old copy for my dd. She will love it!)
Marie
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catholicmomma
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i too read this as a young girl, but I couldn't remember what it was about (other than horses), so I re-read it last winter to pre-view for my animal-loving daughter. I REALLY enjoyed the books (read the sequels, too), but decided to hold off for my daughter for a couple of reasons.
First, her (11 dd) vocabulary and comprehension is just not there yet. But it also struck me that this is NOT really a kids' book. There is nothing evil in it; I'm talking about theme. I think it would be much more valuable to older high school and adults.
Brief synopsis: a family of horse ranchers living in Wyoming. Mom, Dad, 2 boys. The dad is ex-soldier, gave up military life to go west to become rancher. The mom is East Coast socialite family, but she sacrifices everything she knows out of love for her husband, to support him. (this resonates pretty deeply with my life lately, so I guess that's why I really admired the wife.)
The boys go to boarding school. The older one is very like his father: practical, smart. The younger boy is artistic and dreamy (like his mother). He is also flunking out of school. He can't do anything right, poor kid. As punishment for flunking whatever grade he is in, his father decides NOT to let him choose a colt this summer (like his brother got to do last year!) But his mother convinces the father that reverse psychology will work here: let the boy have a horse, and he will rise to the occassion of becoming responsible. Father reluctantly agrees. So the boy chooses a young filly, which he names Flicka. His mother seems proven right: he does anything and everything for this horse. He is a changed (young) man.
Problem: Flicka unfortunately is in the line of a wild stallion that broke into the ranch and sired wild children. All the horses from this strain have proven incredibly fast, but often wild and unreliable. You never know what they will do. Ken's father had vowed to sell off ALL the horses in this line, but his son unfortunately refuses to choose any horse but her. To sum up: Flicka turns out to have incredible speed, but is the source of many arguments, and much pain. You can get other summaries from Amazon.
I would call this one of the best growing-up, father-son relationship books I've read. The boy's "I'll-do-anything to earn my father's love and approval" struggle is at times painful to read, but OH, so real.
I think the author had an incredbile gift for characterization, and she did an excellent job capturing the parenting style of the time. This is NOT a "happy" read: details that illuminate the pain the boy felt in his lack of ability to form a strong bond with his father, the incredible passion he had for his horse (he nearly dies saving her), his feelings of insecurity and failure The sequels are even more "adult" in theme, focusing on the couple's marriage, especially the financial problems they have, and how their marriage suffers (and is renewed).
My Friend Flicka It is one of the few books I can recall like a movie in my mind, and I would say that I'd like to re-read it sometime (I read so much that very few books make it on my re-read list!). With that said, this is not the right time for my kids to read it. I don't think they'd see much of the beauty in it at all. I honestly do not know why it is marketed as a kids book at all.
FYI: I was appalled at the preview of the movie Flicka that came out last year: surely O'Hara (I think that is the author's name) is turning over in her grave: apparently someone rewrote it as a teen girl rebelling aaginst her father. That is NOT what happens in this book. How can you twist a boy's longing to please his father with a rebellious, disobedient daughter? Oh well.
Hope this helps,
Lisa B in OH
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humanaevitae
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| Posted: June 10 2007 at 6:25pm | IP Logged
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Thanks for the great summary Lisa!
I checked the audio out of the library and started listening...I LOVED it! However there is some language sprinkled throughout it that is probably more noticable listening to it rather than reading it. This brings me to wondering how parents approach a great story but one that has some bad language in it. I think that will be my next post!
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Nicole-Zane 10, Elizabeth 7, Xavier 4, and John Patrick 2
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Topic: My Friend Flicka
