Sold to the Highest Bidder

by Phyllis Galley Westover

Overview

What happens when a boy is threatened with the loss of what he loves most? Eleven-year-old Jed with the help of his eight-year-old friend, Tommy, pits his ingenuity against the hard realities of the adult world. Jed has worked a year to buy Dusty, a pony he’s helped nurse back to health. Dusty’s owner plans to sell Dusty for profit at the county fair auction. Against the odds, Jed goes to the auction where the ante is upped by a pony ring buyer. Tommy adds his allowance savings to Jed’s work wages, but Jed is still outbid and crumples in despair. From the back Tommy and Jed hear a voice that jolts Jed to an idea that changes the outcome of the auction. From hot August haying to anguished reflection in Jed’s “thinking tree” and fast-paced, auction tension, this is a story to read aloud and savor.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940148555155
Publisher:	Phyllis Galley Westover
Publication date:	08/05/2013
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	68
File size:	2 MB
Age Range:	9 - 12 Years

About the Author

Phyllis Galley Westover’s short stories, essays and reviews have appeared in magazines, literary journals, newspapers, and six anthologies. Two documentary films she wrote aired on public television. In 2003, she received Boulevard Magazine’s fiction award. Sold to the Highest Bidder is her first children’s book and draws on early summers on her grandfather’s Ohio farm. Previously, she was humanities editor and columnist for Potpourri Literary Magazine. She began her career teaching elementary school in California. For 24 years she taught English and directed adult degree programs at Oklahoma City University and Baker University where she was Associate Dean of the University for Graduate and Continuing Studies. She and her husband live in Kansas City, Missouri, with their retired racing greyhound, “Obie.”

Editorial Reviews

"Young readers and listeners alike will delight in Sold to the Highest Bidder. Eleven-year-old Jed is determined to rescue a beloved pony from the auction ring. In this fast-paced tale, Jed battles the pony ring man. Tension builds as complication upon complication arises until a surprising resolution is reached. With exquisite details, Phyllis Galley Westover draws a portrait of a young farm boy learning important lessons about perseverance and friendship."

Author of The Year the Colored Sisters Came to Town - Jacqueline Guidry

"In Sold to the Highest Bidder Phyllis Galley Westover involves the readers so completely in the problem of eleven-year-old Jed that the result is a compelling, powerful story. Follow the journey of Jed in a summer in the 1940s as he nurses a neighbor's pony back to health. Watch how he struggles in an effort to own this pony against impossible odds. See how he learns that sometimes you have to share your love in order to keep it."

Authors of the children's novels, Running Scared and Through a Dark Tunnel, www.walshwritingservices.com - Suella Walsh and Lawrence Walsh

"Travel back to hard-working rural America of the 1940s in this absorbing story of friendship, love, determination and collaboration. You'll be captivated by eleven-year-old Jed and eight-year-old Tommy, two boys with a willingness to work and a passion for Dusty, a run-down pony they help restore to health."

Writer, editor, and author of Love in the Land of Dementia. Co-author, Antiquing for Dummies. - Deborah Shouse

"Jed and Tommy are real boys doing real things-learning the value of working a long day for a short day's pay, saving the money made through their own sweat labor for the one thing in life they love best, a loyal and beautiful pony named Dusty. You'll experience the sights and smells of a working farm, the tensions and excitement of an old fashioned auction, where life between the generations is anything but equal and where the triumph of goodness and love . . . will make your heart cheer."

Author of One Right Thing, www.ChaliseBourque.com. - Chalise Bourque Bourque

“...The story’s theme--about the friendship a child can form with an animal even if that animal isn’t his--will be easy for young readers to identify with. Westover is surprisingly adept at capturing a young boy’s point of view, and her glossary and discussion topics make this book suitable for reading groups or classrooms. . . . There’s a lot to discuss here, and some moments that adults will appreciate as well. . . . This short chapter book is full of charming black-and-white illustrations . .

KIRKUS REVIEW - Anonymous

2013-12-06
This children's novel looks at how human-animal relationships sometimes defy logic. In 1948, young Jed's rancher employer buys a sick, starving horse named Dusty, and Jed falls in love with it almost immediately. Mr. Ural plans to sell the horse after he nurses it back to health, but that doesn't stop Jed from developing a deep friendship with it. Jed takes odd jobs at Mr. Ural's farm and other places in Canton, Ohio, to earn money to buy Dusty before he's put up for auction at the county fair. But the day before the auction, Jed comes up short: He has only $500, and Mr. Ural expects to get at least $600 for the horse. After almost giving in to despair, Jed attends the auction in the hope that his $500 will be enough, only to find himself engaged in a tight bidding war that surpasses his budget. Soon he and his friend Tommy come up with a unique solution to the difficult problem. This short chapter book, full of charming black-and-white illustrations, may leave some readers confused about its setting and time period, which aren't clarified immediately. But the story's theme--about the friendship a child can form with an animal, even if that animal isn't his--will be easy for young readers to identify with. Westover is surprisingly adept at capturing a young boy's point of view, and her glossary and discussion topics make this book suitable for reading groups or classrooms. Although the plot is somewhat slight, with little action until the intense auction scene, there's a lot for students to discuss here, and some moments that adults will appreciate as well. A slim novel for young readers that deftly imagines the love of a boy for his horse.

Kirkus Reviews