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Mister Boots

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Mister Boots

By: Carol Emshwiller
Narrated by: Suzy Meyers
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Bobby Lassiter has some important secrets—but it’s not as if anyone’s paying attention. It’s the middle of the Depression, and while Bobby’s mother and older sister knit all day to make money, Bobby explores the California desert around their home. That’s how Bobby finds Boots. He’s under their one half-dead tree, halfdead himself. Right away he’s a secret, too—a secret to be fed and clothed and taken care of, and even more of a secret because of what he can do. Sometimes Boots is a man. Sometimes he’s (really, truly) a horse. He and Bobby both know something about magic—and those who read this book will, too.

“A wonderful story about a man who is a horse, and a boy who is a girl—about fake magic and real love—about deaths that are part of living and the pain that pays for joy. I love it.”—Ursula K. Le Guin Animals Animals & Nature Depression & Mental Health Difficult Situations Historical Fiction Literature & Fiction Science Fiction & Fantasy Self Esteem & Self Image
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Critic reviews

“A wonderful story about a man who is a horse, and a boy who is a girl—about fake magic and real love—about deaths that are part of living and the pain that pays for joy.”—Ursula K. Le Guin, award-winning author of A Wizard of Earthsea

“Filled with many of the things I love best in fantasy: humor, weirdness, and a thoughtful mind behind the prose.”—Patrice Kindl, author of Owl in Love

“After fishing Mister Boots, I thought, ‘This is the book Emshwiller was born to write.’ Many of her usual themes of gender and power surface in it, as well as familiar connections between the worlds of animals and people, but even for this so-often subtle writer, there is a new king of subtlety.”—Locus

“Both Mister Books and Bobby’s transformations—horse and human, boy and girl—effectively highlight the results of leading a dual existence in a world where you can’t stay in between forever.”—BCCB
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