Where the Wild Horses Are

Nash Eliza West has been horseless her whole life, and she has one shot to turn things around.

Twelve-year-old Nash is a self-proclaimed cowboy. She sleeps with her riding boots on, takes lessons at the local barn, and reads True Grit for life advice. There's just one thing missing— a horse of her own.

Enter the Extreme Mustang Makeover contest, a chance to receive and tame a newly-captured mustang for the summer. Signing up will guarantee Nash one hundred days with a horse; and if she wins, she can use the prize money to bring him home for good. It's the miracle Nash has been waiting for.

But Nash's attention is divided when her cousin Benny arrives to stay for the summer. While Nash and Benny were once like sisters, the six years since Nash moved away have driven a wedge between them. Benny is everything Nash isn't: gentle and well-behaved, and Deaf like Nash's parents are. Sometimes she wonders if they'd rather have a daughter like that than a headstrong cowboy CODA like Nash.

A brave girl and a horse no one believes can be tamed: it's a tale as old as time, brought to sizzling new life through Nash's one-of-a-kind voice. Amy Alznauer weaves cowboy bravado, growing pains, and Deaf culture inspired by life in her Deaf-hearing family into a debut middle grade novel that will lasso you tight by the heart.