wide reading entry #5- a home for Teasel

Title: A home for Teasel

Author: Margi Mcallister

Text type: Novel

August 2019

This novel is about a girl named Gwen who had always wanted and dreamed about owning her own pony. This book follows her on her journey to finally meeting the pony she had always longed for.

Throughout the book, I found the Gwen to be interesting as I really was intrigued by her ambition and determination “if you want something do it yourself” to not give up on her dreams and what she’s always longed for “the only thing she wanted, all she had ever wanted or asked for, was a pony”. Gwen tries her best and finds solutions to help her with accomplishing her dreams. in society today if people think that their dreams are going to be too challenging to reach they just give up on them, there’s not a lot of people that going chasing after them. so following Gwen on her journey to reaching her dream was very interesting. I really felt for Gwen when Gwen’s parents kept shutting down her goal but her determination really empowered me to keep chasing after what I want in life.

From this book, I took away the message of not to give up on your dreams and goals, keep chasing after them no matter what if its something you really want you’ll be determined enough to not give up and work hard to get/achieve it. While reading the novel I made me think what I want in life and how I’m going to achieve it and that I should never give up striving for it. As Gwen did in this book she was gonna save up and buy her own pony herself, she took every job offered to her because to her even a little bit of money goes a long way “she smiled as she slipped her dog-walking money between the pages” “every little helped!”. To Gwen’s luck on one of her jobs she had just happened to meet the pony of her dreams.

Gwen had that challenge of people trying to bring her down “they told her over and over again she could have one”, saying that what she wants is unachievable and she should just find something else, something easier to achieve “A pony, said mum and dad, was out of the question”. She had the challenge to do it all by herself with no help. this really makes me feel for Gwen everyone trying to bring her down it really makes me look at my life and see whos actually been there and supported what I want to achieve and who’s helped along the way. Bringing people and peoples dreams down is big, really big in society today. if you want something you should just go for it as Gwen did in the book.

I think that the title of this novel was appropriate if could have been named something else but the title it has still works with what the book was trying to explain. It’s about bringing Gwen and a pony(Teasel) together realising that they both need each other and work well together “I don’t know what I did before Teasel”. when you first hear the title of the novel you don’t really know what to expect, it’s quite a broad title “a home for Teasel” so When you read it you don’t have very high expectations. A lot of people judge a book by its title and don’t give it a chance, but if you actually give the book a chance you might really enjoy it. But throughout the novel you understand the title of the text more and why it is titled that.

I would recommend this book to anyone if you don’t have that much interest in horses then this book then probably isn’t for you as it is very much about the horsey scene “do you like horses, Gwen” “I love them”. This book gives out an empowering message which is not to give up on your hopes and dreams “earning all the money she could. she’d buy herself a pony, even if it took years”. I think that everyone should take away that message. So I believe this book is ideal for anyone and everyone to read.

I really enjoyed reading this book I found it thrilling and it really interested me as I am a horsey fan. I like how it gave me a message to take away and really made think about my life and see what has great importance to me in it. Thinking about who has supported what I want to do and who hasn’t along the way. I definitely would read this book again as I really enjoyed reading it.