I Rode A Horse Of Milk White Jade

I Rode A Horse Of Milk White Jade

Oyuna, a crippled Mongolian girl, and Bayan, a hobbling old horse, defy the odds by venturing across the steppes and into the royal court of Kublai Khan, intent on achieving one particular goal. Grade 6-10AIn 14th-century China, an elderly woman tells her granddaughter about her early life on the Mongol steppes, beginning with the day a horse crushed her tiny foot, crippling the young Oyuna. According to her nomadic clan's religious beliefs, this incident brought bad luck to her and her family. Thereafter, she views any misfortune visited upon her family as her fault, even her mother's accidental death. Her one joy is her new white horse. When the mare is commandeered by Kublai Khan's forces, Oyuna dresses as a boy in order to remain with her beloved companion. When the soldiers discover her secret, they are anxious to get rid of her and quickly send her off alone to complete a mission for an injured arrow rider for the Khan. After an arduous trek, she reaches the Khan's palace where she is instrumental in halting a plague that is killing off the ruler's herd of white horses and meets the man whom she will marry. In the words of her own shamaness grandmother, she has learned to make her own luck. This unique coming-of-age story is steeped in the rituals and superstitions of the period and punctuated with graphic images of the harsh terrain and living conditions on the barren steppes, the treacherous mountains, and the gobi. The character of Oyuna, though a sympathetic one, seems drawn with a kind of detachment that makes it difficult to identify closely with her. Nevertheless, her story is an exciting one that will reward diligent, proficient readers.APeggy Morgan, The Library Network, Southgate, MI Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. Gr. 6^-10. In China in 1339, a young girl huddles with her Mongolian grandmother, Oyuna, in a stable, waiting with a mare who is about to foal. Oyuna tells her life story to her granddaughter, starting with the injury that left her lame after her first childhood encounter with a horse. It is a fantastical tale: Oyuna's own grandmother, a shamaness, offers her hope of better luck after the death of Oyuna's mother. With a horse that speaks words she can hear (sometimes) and a remarkable tiger cat, Oyuna rides, first hiding both her lameness and her gender, to deliver to the great court of Kublai Khan a package entrusted to her by mistake. The telling of her many adventures, as well as her dreams of Kublai's fields of milk-white horses near his court, occasionally slows the first-person narrative. But there are portents and amulets, hairbreadth rescues, and Oyuna's dream of returning to her father and clan to return their good luck to them--these factors will hold readers. Full of period detail, with a glossary of Mongolian words used in the text, the tale will appeal to those who love historical fantasy or horse stories. GraceAnne A. DeCandido ``Bad luck,'' plagues 12-year-old Oyuna and her family. Oyuna seems fated to live with the curse of her lame foot, crushed by a black mare, for the rest of her life. But the elderly Oyuna relates the plodding story to her granddaughter of how she changed her destiny in in 14th-century Mongolia. During the era of Kublai Khan, Oyuna's journey to self-confidence begins when she finds that she is able to communicate with a special white mare. When soldiers come to take the mare, Oyuna disguises herself as a boy to join Khan's army so she can be with the horse. Her adventures border on the absurd, e.g., she first stands up to Khan and then bonds with him. While there are some brave moments and dramatic scenes, readers will lose patience with the limping narrative and obvious moral. (glossary) (Fiction. 11-13) -- Copyright ©1998, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. An ambitious and fast-moving plot insistently tugs the reader away from the book's flaws. -- The New York Times Book Review , Elizabeth Devereaux Used Book in Good Condition