I Rode a Horse of Milk White Jade

Well-written and engaging, this book was rich in sharing about another culture. It feels like we enter into the daily life patterns of a nomadic culture on the steppes of Mongolia. This is definitely a book to share with my grandkids, & feel it would be a great gift for any young girl thrilled about horses.
The cultural expectations of the early 1300s are presented as the norm (early marriage, gender roles, mistrust of physical differences, rule by a Khan dynasty, interpreting unexpected events as resulting from luck), but the story is about a young girl who challenges the norm. While this challenge fits in well with our current social value of supporting gender equality, I am uncertain if any such situation would ever have occurred back show more in that time.
There is a glossary for the non-English words used.
I particularly liked the detail of how different foods and cultural goods were made, tho there was much that was left out (where did the silk come from for their dels?). show less

An exciting historical adventure, with no war or rape, about a 12 year-old girl with more courage and heart than any warrior on a quest.

I, personally, was a bit frustrated by all the reliance on superstition?/ faith?. But the theme that we can make our own luck is foreshadowed throughout and revealed directly at the end, so that's good.

I think back on my childhood, and I would absolutely have loved this when I was 12. And I recommend it to anyone who looks for strong female characters, even adults, even if they don't think they're interested in the horse story or the Mongolian historical setting.

Oyuna tells her granddaughter the story of how love for her horse enabled her to win a race and bring good luck to her family in Mongolia in 1285.

Tragedy follows Oyuna as her foot is crushed by a horse when she is three and her mother is struck by lightning and killed Oyuna is about nine. Through luck, interesting circumstances, and her great relationship with animals, Oyuna learns to rise above her misfortunes. *This book has good examples of how another culture deals with death rituals. *

A Mongolian coming of age story. Oyuna was considered bad luck because of a crushed foot, but she goes with her horse and rides with Kublai Khan's forces and learns to make her own luck.

In early fourteenth-century China, Oyuna tells her granddaughter of her girlhood in Mongolia and how love for her horse enabled her to win an important race and bring good luck to her family