With Magical Horses to Ride

by Winifred Morris

Lizzie finds a fantasy world that helps her humdrum existence become a fulfilling life, but then something terrible happens that breaks the seemingly magic spell.

Genres: Fiction

152 pages, Library Binding

Published January 1, 1985

About the author

I've built and remodeled houses and helped plant more than a million trees. I'm also the author of several award-winning children's books published the more traditional way, five picture books and four novels for the young - and young at heart.

But as publishing has changed, I've changed too. I've started writing for adults and let myself get a little wackier. Of Mice and Money is a comic women's book, which I'm told is a contradiction in terms. How come? Bombed is comic romantic suspense. And I'll soon be releasing The Sometime Burglar, a comic romantic novella.

I've also published Living in Suspension, which is a return to my YA roots. It’s not as funny, and I love humor, but it means a lot to me. It’s the story of a struggling teenager, more like Liar which was an ALA Quick Pick for Reluctant YA Readers.

Reviews

[Heather]

I wasn't real excited about this book, but I thought it might be a nice lil adventure.
It started off boring, and it pretty much stayed that way throughout. I couldn't connect with any of the characters. no one had much personality. her home life was sadsack and boring. the book was repetitive.
That was a rlly stupid wish. Thank goodness the wizard didn’t grant it!
How does she know about the lives of ppl in the cemeteries?
She said that because long ago it had been a small town, then the woman must have come from the East. &that because the woman went that long without being married, she must have taught piano. What kid would know those things? &piano has nothing to do with being single.
Lizzie rose a little in my estimation when she said she liked lord of the rings, especially the fellowship. But throughout the whole book, I couldn’t ever connect to her. I never warmed up to her. I found the book boring and uninspiring. It was just plain weird.
The author deliberately tricked us, and then just ruined her book with the biggest most confusing disappointing twist in the history of books.
Another reason I didn’t really like her because on the occasions her dad would actually be nice, she wouldn’t reciprocate. She actually said “why don’t you hurry up and leave. You’re no help at all around here.”
When the book first mentioned Tara, I was like who the heck is that? She didn’t mention she had a sister. She also called her parents by their first names, which was odd. &she never talked to her sister. Their wasn’t much dialogue in here.
I was going to give credit to the author for completely surprising us with an interesting story twist with her being reincarnated. I got excited because I thought that the elf knew her in a past life. I was really surprised because I usually see things like that coming in a book. But NO. the author pulled the rug out from under is.
The only thing this book had going for it was that nothing was predictable. Absolutely nothing.
I was so freakin shocked when I found out that marcus was really mark, the wizard was really an old man, and the elf was plain ol Charleston. I couldn’t have been more surprised if the characters jumped out of the book and slapped me.
I could only think-who would write this?
At the end, ill just say this book is bizarre. All my thoughts during this book are moot, because none of it came to. I was going to say that the wizard wasn’t dressed like a wizard, but he wasn’t really one. I was gunna say the boy on the cover didn’t look like an elf, but he wasn’t one, so never mind. I was thinking that the house was painted completely weird, not elf/wizard like or all. It sounded like a funhouse. But it was just an old crazy painter, so whatever. I was also going to say that marcus didn’t seem like any wizard’s apprentice, but he wasn’t, so oh well.
Oh well to the whole story.
There were so many things that didn’t make sense&looking back, lizzie should have realized them. She never questioned how they came to the human world or anything.
nothing was really resolved in the end either.
I just don’t like when you read a book expecting it to be supernatural/magical and it isn’t at all. The authors completely dupe you.
I wanted to know how/why someone would go to all that trouble to dupe a child. It’s completely bizarre. Yeah, Carleton wanted a friend. But that’s the weirdest, most crazy, most WRONG thing to do. The old man should know better. &idk where/how mark learned tarot cards, but wasn’t that fake in the end? I don’t see why that would be real, when everything else wasn’t. also, mark should be punished. He committed a crime. He needs to be in jail. To take the prank that far, to actually make lizzie believe she had been reincarnated, was the most cruel thing to do. People who could actually do this need to committed to a psych ward. He wasn’t even apologetic about it. I couldn’t believe it. I couldn’t believe anything I was reading.
This book threw me for a big ol loop, and I didn’t appreciate it. The author just kept pulling the rug out from under us readers. I don’t like that feeling. I like surprises, but these surprises suck. It contradicted the whole book and everything I thought I knew.
the story completely defied logic. no magic. nothing! her parents didn't change. his parents didn't change. mark got away. the "elf" and "wizard" didn't seem to realize what they did was wrong and psychotic. would Carleton's dad have paid the ransom? is lizzie's dad suddenly going to help out, and end his fantasies?