CREAKY ACRES

A 10-year-old Black girl faces a lot of difficult changes when she moves to a rural town.

When her mom gets a new job, Nora Wright leaves behind her three best friends, Ava, Anna, and Emma (drawn as nearly identical slender blond white girls) and the posh stable where she boards her horse, Hay Fever, to move to Creaky Acres. Although her current trainer recommends the place, Nora instantly despises it, calling it “a dump.” Horses are well cared for at Creaky Acres, but so are possums and a goat—and the white kids riding there are scruffy and don’t go to horse shows. Nora’s rude to them. She endures frequent racial microaggressions from kids and adults alike at her new school, where she’s the only Black student. She’s struggling with her riding, too. Nora is appealing and sympathetic, and the overall message that friendship and a love of horses transcend race and class divisions is a good one, but it’s undermined by the depiction of the rich riders as thin and neat and the poorer ones as plump and untidy, images that perpetuate stereotypes about body size and socioeconomic class. Confusingly, “eventing,” which is a specific sort of competition, is used repeatedly as a synonym for “horse show,” and some elements of the story strain credulity. The cartoonlike artwork is expressive and highlights the characters’ feelings.

An unevenly executed story with a strong message about personal growth.