The Georges and the Jewels Read online

  I told her I knew what she was talking about. I still wondered if she had pushed that necklace through my locker vents on purpose, but it seemed mean, as long as we were talking about being mean, to ask.

  I told her I would still be her friend.

  She said, “Thank you, Abby.”

  It sounded like she meant it. What I meant, I have to admit, was We’ll see. But I decided that was a private thought.

  On Wednesday, Miss Slater called and said that she had entered me and Gallant Man in four classes in the spring show; would I come out Saturday and sit on him for an hour or so? That night, I had a little free time, so I sat down with my notebook and wrote the names in my best handwriting. Under the name Rally, I wrote everything I had learned about him, and then, at the bottom, I wrote, A little girl can ride him.

  About the Author

  Jane Smiley is the author of many books for adults, including Horse Heaven, Moo, and the Pulitzer Prize-winning A Thousand Acres. She was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 2001.

  Jane Smiley lives in Northern California, where she rides horses every chance she gets. The Georges and the Jewels is her first novel for young readers.

  THIS IS A BORZOI BOOK PUBLISHED BY ALFRED A. KNOPF

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Copyright © 2009 by Jane Smiley

  All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Alfred A. Knopf, an imprint of Random House Children’s Books, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.

  Knopf, Borzoi Books, and the colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.

  Visit us on the Web! www.randomhouse.com/kids

  Educators and librarians, for a variety of teaching tools, visit us at

  www.randomhouse.com/teachers

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Smiley, Jane.

  The Georges and the Jewels / Jane Smiley. — 1st ed.

  p. cm.

  Summary: Seventh-grader Abby Lovitt grows up on her family’s California horse ranch in the 1960s, learning to train the horses her father sells and trying to reconcile her strict religious upbringing with her own ideas about life.

  eISBN: 978-0-375-89414-5

  [1. Horses—Training—Fiction. 2. Ranch life—California—Fiction. 3. Family life—

  California—Fiction. 4. Christian life—Fiction. 5. California—History—1950—Fiction.]

  I. Title.

  PZ7.S6413Ge 2009

  [Fic]—dc22

  2009006241

  Random House Children’s Books supports the First Amendment and celebrates the right to read.

  v3.0

  Table of Contents

  Cover

  Title Page

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  About the Author

  Copyright