LIBERTY BISCUIT

Katherine “Kip” Pearl’s Grandpa Joe was the finest horse trainer in Georgia, and he passed down his love of horses to her.

While she has grown up on his family’s peach farm, Kip’s dad has forbidden pets of any kind, including horses, for reasons he won’t share. On the Fourth of July, Kip finds a one-eyed white donkey in bad shape in the woods and lures him home with her peach biscuits. Her family discovers that this donkey and two starving horses were recently seized from an abusive home. Despite her dad’s objections, Grandpa Joe decides he and Kip should foster the animals while waiting for the court case to decide their fate. Kip falls in love immediately with the donkey she names Liberty Biscuit, and when the judge rules in the owner’s favor and orders the animals to be returned, Kip promises to do everything she can to get them back. Thirteen-year-old Kip’s voice feels inconsistent for her age, oscillating between sounding very young and much older. Kip’s mom’s side of the family is Black, and her dad and his family are White. While Bowles states in the acknowledgments that this novel was born out of a desire to normalize mixed-race families like her daughter’s, the conversations about race are superficial, and their delivery and placement in the story feel stilted and forced. Despite these limitations, Kip’s story is heartwarming.

Animal lovers will appreciate many aspects of this gentle tale.