Description

Katherine Pearl Baker—“Kip” for short—is the only child on her familys rural peach farm. She longs for a pet to ease the loneliness. Unfortunately, her father has an angry opposition to all animals—horses in particular. Why he dislikes them is a confounding mystery. Hiding in the woods on the Fourth of July, Kip encounters a bedraggled donkey with one eye and a floppy ear. Immediately smitten and compelled to protect him, she feeds him biscuits and takes him home. When it is discovered the donkey fled an abusive owner, Kips father finally relents, reluctantly allowing him to stay. Kip is elated when her grandfather agrees to help her foster the donkey, who she names “Liberty Biscuit,” along with two emaciated horses removed by the local sheriff from the same home, as the cruelty case goes to court. While caring for the animals, Kips happiness is overshadowed by a shocking discovery in a trunk in the family farms hayloft—a faded photograph of her father as a boy that reveals secrets long kept. A court order to return the horses, and even worse, Kips beloved Liberty Biscuit, to the owner who had starved and beaten them, throws Kips world into turmoil. She knows she must find a way to keep them, or she will have betrayed the best friend she has ever had. But saving the animals means risking the complete unraveling of her family as she exposes the long-buried truth about a tragic accident and a hurt like shes never known before.