Holiday House, 2014; paperback distributed by Penguin Random House
Hardcover ISBN: 978-0823429486
Paperback ISBN: 978-0823440047
E-book ISBN: 978-0823431564
Amazon Kindle: ASIN: ‎B00ID50MPC

For a personalized copy, contact the author directly.

Recently freed from indentured servitude, sixteen-year-old Daniel Linnehan sets out with his beloved horse, Ivy, to make a new start in life. Although he should be excited about his hard-won liberty, he’s been told what to do for so long that he hardly knows where to begin. It doesn’t help that, in 19th-century New England, his Irishness is enough to get him labeled a liar and a thief . . . or worse.

When rumors incite a violent mob against Daniel, a peddler and roving jack-of-all-trades named Jonathan Stocking saves his life. Assisting Mr. Stocking is young Billy Fogarty, a gifted singer and former pickpocket whom Mr. Stocking rescued from an abusive father. The peddler sees more in these two Irish misfits than they can see in themselves—or in each other—and becomes a father figure to them as they travel together. 

This trio of outcasts meets up with a traveling circus, where an old friend of Mr. Stocking’s invites them to join the show. Daniel discovers his own talents as a horse whisperer after an incompetent trainer abandons the show’s six dancing ponies. Meanwhile, Billy becomes the company’s star vocalist. With Mr. Stocking guiding Daniel’s horse-training efforts and coaching Billy’s singing, the three grow from traveling companions into a peculiar sort of family, and Daniel begins to heal his broken life.

But a dangerous secret threatens to tear the traveling companions apart. And one of them must make a decision that could change their lives forever.

From the publisher: “This deeply moving sequel to A Difficult Boy weaves an indelible piece of historical fiction into a gripping adventure that explores themes of patience, courage, kindness, and the true meaning of family.”

Holiday House, 2014; paperback distributed by Penguin Random House
Hardcover ISBN: 978-0823429486
Paperback ISBN: 978-0823440047
E-book ISBN: 978-0823431564
Amazon Kindle: ASIN: ‎B00ID50MPC

For a personalized copy, contact the author directly.

Awards & Honors

  • 2015 Massachusetts Center for the Book “Must-Read Books” list
  • 2015 Housatonic Book Awards Finalist
  • 2015 Booklist Top 10 Historical Fiction for Youth
  • 2015 Banks Street College of Education Children’s Literature Center “Best Children’s Books of the Year” list
  • 2014 NLA/NEMA/MPLA [Nebraska Library Association/Nebraska Educational Media Association/Mountain Plains Library Association] Conference Best Teen Books List
  • 2014 Kirkus Prize nominee
  • 2014 VOYA Magazine “Top Shelf” Fiction reading list
  • 2011 William Faulkner-William Wisdom Creative Writing Competition Semifinalist for Novel-in-Progress.

“Fluid writing and a true sense of history—including fascinating insights into early circuses—raise this well above the usual. Barker’s characters are nuanced, difficult, and real, and so is her sense of horses. An absorbing look into a patch of past not often examined.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

“‘Mending Horses’ may be the best book I have reviewed in the past year. [The] novel is dramatic, insightful and lyrical . . . meticulously researched and smoothly paced. . . . The book has dark moments, but its message of hope and understanding should move teenagers and adults.” —Greenfield Recorder

“Barker fashions a well-researched roster of circus eccentrics to serve as a colorful backdrop to Daniel’s slow flowering as a horse trainer and Billy’s pugnacious evolution towards contentment. . . . a story of grace and strength.” —School Library Journal

“. . . a poignant and seriously written work of historical fiction . . . deals with issues of gender equality and acceptance of different cultures and race . . . an incredibly sweet, touching book about learning not only to trust others, but to trust yourself. It’s a wonderful coming of age novel about a boy and his horse and a girl who learns what it means to truly be free.” —Morgan Lee, “For Such Love We Feel” blog

“The sense of time and place, New England in the 1830s, is so stark and vivid that you can almost smell the earthy richness of the farm country and hear the hoof beats of the prancing ponies that Daniel tames as the story progresses. The other major characters, a youngster with an angelic voice that belies an angry heart and an aging peddler who struggles to do what is best for his two young charges, bring vigor to the tale as they navigate physical, emotional, and moral obstacles. . . . engaging, suspenseful, and delightful.” —Melva Michaelian, Educator and Author of Contemporary Fiction