“Horsing Around In The Town Of Gold Hill: A Story to Stirrup the Imagination and Spur Creativity!” is a cleverly written and charmingly illustrated picture book that I started writing after the Four Mile Canyon Fire. Grateful that our town survived the wildfire, the book is my lighthearted attempt to celebrate the wonder and beauty of Gold Hill. It’s a humorous, rhyming tale for readers of all ages who are kids at heart. It encourages us to notice the small wonders that occur in nature and to observe the landscape around our home. At the same time, it highlights how self-limiting behaviors can prevent us from fully experiencing our lives and living up to our potential.
The story involves a disgruntled horse and a group of clever animal characters that begin a search through the town of Gold Hill in an effort to find an answer. What they discover is a lesson more valuable than gold! In it, I describe many sensory perceptions of nature and how they inspire me creatively. I hope they inspire the reader, too!
Kelly Dodds –
Horsing Around in the Town of Gold Hill: A Story to Stirrup the Imagination and Spur Creativity is a great book!
I bought it to use in my third grade classroom, and the kids loved listening to me read it out loud. The book is written in a poetry format, and the stanzas all cleverly rhyme. It is very hard to find engaging books, written with a story line, that are poetry based. It is hard to tell if this book is a poetry book, a fiction story, or a non-fiction book, as it has elements of all woven in it.
I also really enjoyed the characters of the book. Each character was described with some fun facts about the animals in the story. The illustrations are very cute as well.
The moral of the story is great. We often think that things in life hold us back or that we feel “fenced in” when really, our attitudes and lack of creativity are the biggest things holding us back. This book does a great job reminding us all to go out, have fun, and observe our world!