Book picks similar to
Rain Dance by Karen Wood


young-adult
ya
contemporary
younglings

Flambards


K.M. Peyton - 1967
    Christina discovers a passion for horses and riding but finds herself part of a strange household, divided by emotional undercurrents and cruelty.

Confessions of a Once Fashionable Mum


Georgia Madden - 2015
    Facebook-worthy baby? Tick. Bikini-body six weeks after giving birth? Um … not so much.Fashion PR exec Ally Bloom got her happy ending. Okay, her marriage might be showing the odd crack, her battleaxe mother-in-law might have come to stay, and she might not be the yummy mummy she'd imagined, but it's nothing a decent night's sleep and a firm commitment to a no-carb diet won't fix.But when Ally returns to work and finds she'll be reporting to a 22-year-old airhead, she decides to turn her back on life as a professional fashionista and embrace her inner earth mama instead.So it's out with the Louboutins and champagne and in with the sensible flats and coffee mornings with the Mummy Mafia. From attending her first grown-up dinner party only to discover that placenta is top of the menu to controlling her monster crush on local playgroup hottie Cameron, Ally must find her feet in the brave new world of the stay-at-home mum.

Finding Daylight


Mara Dabrishus - 2016
    Overnight, Georgie becomes the face of horse racing, and Sweet Bells becomes its queen.Although they’re the morning line favorites, Georgie can barely keep her head above water. Her parents’ farm is a crumbling has-been, her jockey career consumes her time, and Harris Armstrong, the grandson of Sweet Bells’ owner, won’t forgive her for telling a lie that kept her family together as the truth ripped his apart.Harris doesn’t trust Georgie, but he needs her talent to get his new colt to the Kentucky Derby. Together they form a tenuous partnership, uncovering new truths and old family secrets, as well as a simmering attraction that could rewrite everything they know about each other, their families, and the future.

In the Skin of a Monster


Kathryn Barker - 2015
    She's struggling with her identity, and with life in the small Australian town where everyone was touched by the tragedy. Just as Alice thinks things can't get much worse, she encounters her sister on a deserted highway. But all is not what it seems, and Alice soon discovers that she has stepped into a different reality, a dream world, where she's trapped with the nightmares of everyone in the community. Here Alice is forced to confront the true impact of everything that happened the day her twin sister took a gun to school ... and to reveal her own secret to the boy who hates her most.

The Set Up


Sophie McKenzie - 2009
    By synthesising it, he managed to implant it in a series of embryos, knowing that the gene would be kick-started at puberty. But Fox was killed by his business partner, Jack Linden, before he saw his experiment come to fruition. Jack has big plans for the kids with the psychic gene - IF he can track them down… though Fox's brother, Fergus, is determined to stop him and keep the kids safe: Nico - telekinetic and cocky with it; Ketty - clairvoyant and terrified she's seen her brother's murder; Dylan - a mind-reader with morals; and Alicia - able to withstand physical pain through the power of her mind. Can Fergus keep them - and his brother's experiment - a secret?

The Wild One


Terri Farley - 2002
    She moved away two years ago to recover from a bad fall off her beloved mustang, Blackie, and she′s still not sure she can get back in the saddle. Her new colt doesn′t seem to like her, and the other ranchers treat her like the boss′s spoiled daughter, and Blackie has been missing since that fateful day.But that′s just the beginning. When Sam suddenly finds the fate of a mysterious mustang - who may or may not be the missing Blackie - resting in her hands, she has to learn to be a real cowgirl, ready or not. The classic theme of a girl and her horse is set against a backdrop of mustangs, tumbleweeds, and a West that′s still Wild.Phantom Stallion #1: The Wild OneOn a moonlit night, a mustang comes to Sam. Is it Blackie grown up and gone wild? Is it the legendary phantom stallion? Or could it be both?Ages 10+

Graffiti Moon


Cath Crowley - 2010
    Lucy is in love with Shadow, a mysterious graffiti artist.Ed thought he was in love with Lucy, until she broke his nose.Dylan loves Daisy, but throwing eggs at her probably wasn't the best way to show it.Jazz and Leo are slowly encircling each other.An intense and exhilarating 24 hours in the lives of four teenagers on the verge: of adulthood, of HSC, of finding out just who they are, and who they want to be.A lyrical new YA novel from the award-winning author of Chasing Charlie Duskin and the Gracie Faltrain series.

The Monday Horses


Jean Slaughter Doty - 1978
    Her pony's accident provides Cassie with an introduction to show horses.

Cleanskin Cowgirls


Rachael Treasure - 2014
    On the surface Elsie Jones, country music superstar, has it all. But a brush with death forces her to re-evaluate her life.Growing up a misfit in the dying wheatbelt town of Culvert, her only friend is chubby Tara Green. At sixteen the girls escape in a rust-bucket ute with a nearly-dead dog, a mop and bucket, a guitar and $74.85. What could possibly go wrong?While the road leads them to the outback scrub mustering cleanskin cattle, there's just one problem. Elsie and Tara have left their hearts in Culvert with their childhood sweethearts, eccentric inventor twins Zac and Amos Smith, who are hiding an incredible secret in their farm shed.After a devastating betrayal, the girls are led on very different journeys. Can they find their way home again or is their friendship lost forever?Cleanskin Cowgirls is a powerful story about taking risks, letting go, and learning that miracles don't just happen... they can be made. Praise for Rachael Treasure:'Treasure has a deft touch that enables her to evoke a rural setting with the quick flick of a stockwhip' The Age'Treasure writes with true grit, wit and warmth' Australian Women's Weekly

Another Kind of Cowboy


Susan Juby - 2007
    Because then he might understand that it’s possible to be a gay cowboy. Trouble is, Alex doesn’t even want to be a cowboy; his dream is to ditch Western-style riding and take up dressage. But with his mother long gone, his father ensconced in an RV in the driveway, his messy Aunt Grace the Hair Stylist installed in the kitchen (whose cooking tastes like her hairdressing smells), and his Kung Fu–obsessed younger twin sisters, Alex knows that his dream is highly unlikely. So when he does get the chance to try the meticulously intricate art of dressage riding and then bumps into the supremely self absorbed Cleo at a competition, it’s a whole new world for Alex.Cleo’s been sent to a very posh, very horsey boarding school nearby because of an unfortunate incident with her handsome chauffeur. Cleo doesn’t get why Alex is so serious about everything, especially when his family is so…interesting. But now Alex is about to lose even the slender hold he has on his dream—and on the secret he’s not yet ready to reveal. Meanwhile, Cleo has fallen in with the party crowd, forgetting all about her precious horse. Does this mean Alex and Cleo’s fledgling friendship is doomed from the start?Juby weaves growing up, coming out and fitting in into a hilarious but always compassionate story set against the fascinating world of dressage riding. Guaranteed to be a huge hit with its YA audience!

The Industry


Rose Foster - 2012
    When she stumbles across an unusual puzzle on the internet and manages to solve it, she has no idea of what she's letting herself in for. Kidnapped by a shadowy organisation known only as The Industry, Kirra soon discovers how valuable her code-breaking skills are. And when she stubbornly refuses to help them, they decide to break her ... by any means at their disposal. Kirra knows that to protect herself, she must trust no one, not even her fellow prisoner, Milo. But as time goes by she realises he might be the only person she can rely on ...

The Orchard Underground


Mat Larkin - 2018
    After all, he was the first kid ever to live there. He knows its mysteries (none), its secrets (also none) and the best ways to have fun in it (climb a big tree and sit there).So why can’t he answer newcomer Attica Stone’s simple question: if the town’s called Dunn’s Orchard, where’s the orchard?As Pri and Attica go in search of forbidden fruit, they uncover stranger mysteries: a robot caterpillar, a mayor with a murky past, a Possibly Real Actual Boogeyman and a house made of doors in a haunted wood. But what will Pri and Attica do when they discover the biggest secret of all – that something truly magical is about to be destroyed, and the only way to save it could be by destroying the town itself?Mat Larkin’s stunning debut is a big-hearted, wildly surprising and deliciously well-plotted mystery for readers aged 8+ about the joy of discovery, and digging just that little bit deeper to uncover the truth.

The Highest Tide


Jim Lynch - 2005
    When he discovers a rare giant squid, he instantly becomes a local phenomenon shadowed by people curious as to whether this speed-reading, Rachel Carson obsessed teenager is just an observant boy or an unlikely prophet. But Miles is really just a kid on the verge of growing up, infatuated with the girl next door, worried that his bickering parents will divorce, and fearful that everything, even the bay he loves, is shifting away from him. As the sea continues to offer up discoveries from its mysterious depths, Miles struggles to deal with the difficulties that attend the equally mysterious process of growing up.

Angels Club


Courtney Vail - 2014
    Although I think I’m pretty nice, not to mention way cool and one of the most knowledgeable people in all things horse, I just can’t make any friends in my new school. The only things flying my way are totally rude insults. The horseback riding therapy farm where I volunteer becomes my perfect escape from mean bullies. And when Angel, a scrawny, muddy American Curly, shows up as rescue, no one but me can see her potential and lovableness, so I take her on as a project horse to get her ready for sale. But, the thing is, I don’t want them to sell her. She’d be so perfect for therapy. So perfect. Now, if only I could prove it. Anyway, Angel’s sugar-candy personality inspires me to be sweet in spite of bad things happening to me. So, of course, I can’t resist the urge to make the world a whole lot brighter. Come on in and see how I do it!

Yellow


Megan Jacobson - 2016
    Her so-called friends bully her, whatever semblance of a mother she had has been drowned at the bottom of a gin bottle ever since her dad left them for another woman, and now a teenage ghost is speaking to her through a broken phone booth. Kirra and the ghost make a pact. She'll prove who murdered him almost twenty years ago if he does three things for her. He makes her popular, he gets her parents back together, and he doesn't haunt her. Things aren't so simple however, and Kirra realises that people can be haunted in more ways than one.