Little Britches by Ralph Moody

This series is one of our favorites.
Ralph Moody is a real boy who tries his best to do right so he can grow up to be a good man.

Second AB: "Well, there was this storm coming and it was a twister. Ralph had a horse named Fanny and she got caught in a bridge and she slipped down and died. It was very sad and I cried. (But the First Mate didn't cry.) Ralph loved his horse and he had tamed her."

First AB: "My favorite part is when Ralph meets Hi. Ralph had to go work when he just 10 and he worked on a ranch. Hi is a cowboy, he has a blue horse and Ralph, who Hi nicknames 'Little Britches,' likes Hi's horse. Hi does lots of tricks with Sky Blue and Ralph would like to learn how to do tricks. One day, he asked the Boss if he could train a blue colt and the Boss told him that Ralph could ride the horse if he could train it. Hi and Ralph enter a trick show. There are a lot of really good parts in this book. Ralph gets into a lot of mischief. I really liked him."

First Mate: "Ralph lived in Colorado. His family moved from Massachusetts because his father's health was not good. His father got a lot better in the West. One day Ralph's father was driving a cart and the horse got scared by a car. The horse ran away and got caught in the barbed wire. This part of the story has a really sad ending. (But I didn't cry. Some others did - I think my dad almost cried.)"

Mom: The whole family enjoyed these poignant stories of Ralph Moody's family and his coming-of-age on the frontier of Colorado.