What about Cimmaron?

by Lauraine Snelling

In What About Cimmaron, a Christian youth fiction by Lauraine Snelling, Sarah loves living in the pristine Toutle Valley with her parents, her sister Kathy, and her horse, Cimmaron. They are all used to occasional tremors from nearby Mount St. Helens. But when the volcano erupts, Sarah’s family evacuates, leaving behind their house, their chickens, their cows, and Cimmaron. As Sarah hears the news of hot ash and mud flows covering her valley, she wonders why God would let such a terrible thing happen. Since He doesn’t seem to be answering her prayers, Sarah decides she will somehow get back into Toutle Valley to save Cimmaron

Genres: Young Adult

96 pages, Paperback

First published September 5, 2008

About the author

Award-winning and bestselling author Lauraine Snelling has over 80 books published with sales of over 4.5 million. Her original dream was to write horse books for children. Today, she writes adult novels about real issues centered on forgiveness, loss, domestic violence and cancer in her inspirational contemporary women’s fiction titles and historical series, including the favorite, Blessing books about Ingeborg Bjorklund and family.

Lauraine enjoys helping others reach their writing dreams by teaching at writer’s conferences across the county. She and her husband Wayne have two grown sons, and a daughter in Heaven. They live in the Tehachapi Mountains with a Basset named Sir Winston ob de Mountains, Lapcat, and “The Girls” (three golden hens).

Reviews

[Marin Ehrmantraut · Rating 4 out of 5]

What about Cimmaron? is a pretty good book about a girl who lives on a farm in the state of Washington near Mt. St. Helens. Her name is Sarah Sorenson. She has a herd of cattle, a dog, and a horse. Her horse's name is Cimmaron and he is Sarah's best friend. She rides him all the time and loves playing with him. Cimmaron is very smart and loves doing tricks and pleasing Sarah. Sarah could not live without Cimmaron. He means everything to her and she could not bear to lose him. One day, Mt. St. Helens blows and everyone has to evacuate their town. Throughout the story, Sarah tries to save Cimmaron. She will do anything to get her beloved horse back.

I liked this book. My favorite part was when Sarah and her friend, Jani, go and try to find Cimmaron, and they end up stuck in their car for a night because the truck broke down from all the ash and smoke. There is lots of suspense in that part. I think Sarah is a lot like me because we both love horses and she is about my age too. I also liked the part in the book at the end where Sarah is just about to give up looking for Cimmaron and then someone calls her and says they have him. If I could change one thing about this book, I would give it more action and not let the detail drag out so much.

[Jill Williamson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sarah lives on a farm in the Toutle Valley of Washington state. She desires one thing in her life: riding her horse, Cimmaron. And Sarah will do anything she can to spend time with that horse, even if that means shirking her chores and disobeying her father. Then Mount Saint Helens blows and Sarah and her family is forced to evacuate. Sarah can think of nothing about Cimmaron, though. Will her horse survive this natural disaster?

I enjoyed reading about a family that lived so near Mount Saint Helens during the eruption in 1980. I found the whole thing very interesting. And I can totally relate to a girl worrying over her horse in such a situation. But it was difficult to like Sarah. She was so set in her ways and rude to her father… even to the point of putting another’s life in danger. She came around in the end, and I think some great dialogue could be raised if you are using this book in a homeschool curriculum way for both history and relationships.

[Bonnijean Marley]

A great book about a girl whose horse disappears when Mt. St. Helens explodes.