Dear Ms.Wilson,
I just read a book called Riding Freedom by Pam Munoz Ryan. This book is based on reality in the 1800s and it’s about a girl named “Charlotte Parkhurst.” Charlotte first lived in an orphanage because her parents died when she was born. Charlotte had a horse named “Freedom,” it was her only horse and it was also very fast and brave, until when Charlotte and Freedom raced in the stables, Freedom was, so exausted that it died. From that day on, Charlotte was very upset about the incident. Her orphanage was a boys orphanage, so she was the only girl there. When I read that part I thought about if I was her, I would have been a little uncomfortable about that. Some of the boys make fun of her, but she doesn’t really care. Charlotte had only one friend. That was Hayward. Charlotte and Hayward liked to chat and play a lot, so that’s how they became best friends. One day Hayward was adopted from the orphanage and Charlotte was surprised in a sad way.
She said she would go too because Charlotte was tired of working for Mr.Millshark and Ms.Boyle, the adults who take care of the orphanage doesn’t pay her for working in the kitchen much, so the next morning, she asked Hayward to give her some boy clothes and she asked Vern, the stables manager to give her a horse and some supplies when she travels. She needed a place to stay, so she went to a place where there are horses and they didn’t have any more rooms, so she had to sleep on the ground. That sounded awful to me if I slept like her where it smelled bad and noisy. Later on, she wanted to get a job, so she tried to shoe a horse, but when the horse noticed that, it kicked her really hard in one eye, so she went to the doctor and from now on she had to put a patch on and people started to make fun of her, so they called her “One-Eyed Charlie instead of her diguising name which is just “Charlie.”She started to vote when women weren’t aloud to vote yet, so when she disguised herself people thought she was a Male rather and a Woman. One time she even saved a costumers life when she rode a stage coach with six horses across a cliff. That made me think Charlotte was one of the most brave, confident and strong person in those days. When she started to earn more money she bought a ranch, so she could stay there and one of the people that known her before like Ebeneezer, the person who found Charlotte and took care of her when she was traveling and accidently found each other. Even Hayward, Charlottes best friend visited her for a while. The next morning Charlotte and Ebeneezer woke up and found that a filly and colt baby horses were delivered to them and then Charlotte decided to called the colt “Vern’s Thunder because Vern, the stable manger was also a very kind and good friend to her since she was a little girl, but unfortunetly he died and that’s why it was important to Charlotte. The filly was very important to Charlotte because she named it “Freedom” when it was her first and special horse before. I thought this story was about, never giving up on your dreams and it might come true later on.
Sincerely,
Neo