About This Book

Charlotte Parkhurst never acted like most other girls. She climbed trees and fought with the boys and worked in a stable. She had a way with horses that was like nothing folks had ever seen.

In the mid-1800s, some people didn't think it was proper for a girl to behave like Charlotte, and they tried to stop her. But Charlotte was smart, and she came up with a plan that would let her live her life the way she wanted — a plan so clever and so secretive that almost no one figured it out.

A top-notch horse rider, a legendary stagecoach driver, the first woman to vote in the state of California and probably the United States, Charlotte Parkhurst, known as Charley, was a real person with a larger than life story. Pam Muñoz Ryan's fast-paced historical novel combines the documented facts of Charlotte's life with her own spirited imaginings, and Brian Selznick's drawings celebrate the pluck and originality of this brave and colorful character. Together author and artist rescue a little known heroine from oblivion and bring her vividly alive for young readers.

About the Authors or Illustrators

Pam Munoz Ryan

Award-winning author Pam Munoz Ryan writes books for adults, picture books for children, and novels for older students. Her works include Amelia and Eleanor Go for a Ride, Becoming Naomi Leon, The Dreamer, Esperanza Rising, Paint the Wind, and Riding Freedom, which have garnered, among countless accolades, the Pura Belpre medal, the Jane Addams Award, and the Schneider Family Award.

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Brian Selznick

Brian Selznick is the illustrator of the Caldecott Honor winner, The Dinosaurs of Waterhouse Hawkins, and the New York Times-Best Illustrated Walt Whitman: Words for America, both by Barbara Kerley, as well as the Sibert Honor winner When Marian Sang, by Pam Muñoz Ryan. In 2008 he won the Caldecott Medal for the groundbreaking title, The Invention of Hugo Cabret.

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