Centaur Rising

By Jane Yolen

One night during the Perseid meteor shower, Arianne thinks she sees a shooting star land in the fields surrounding her family's horse farm. About a year later, one of their horses gives birth to a baby centaur. The family has enough attention already as Arianne's six-year-old brother was born with birth defects caused by an experimental drug—the last thing they need is more scrutiny. But their clients soon start growing suspicious. Just how long is it possible to keep a secret? And what will happen if the world finds out?

At a time when so many novels are set in other worlds, Jane Yolen imagines what it would be like if a creature from another world came to ours in this thoughtfully written, imaginative novel, Centaur Rising.


A Christy Ottaviano Book

• Language: English
• Publisher: Macmillan Publishers
• Release date: Oct 21, 2014
• ISBN: 9780805096651

Jane Yolen

Jane Yolen is an award-winning author who has written more than 380 books for children, including the bestseller How Do Dinosaurs Say Good Night? and the 1988 Caldecott Medal winner Owl Moon. She is known for her beautiful poetry, picture books, fairy tales, novels, and nonfiction, and has even been called “the Hans Christian Andersen of America” (Newsweek). She lives in Hatfield, Massachusetts. Visit her at JaneYolen.com.

Reviews for Centaur Rising

[bostonian71 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Interesting premise, but not as satisfying as most of Yolen's other works. It feels like there's not enough action and too much talk (both narration and just conversational scenes in which not much appears to happen); the balance of the fantasy elements and the more prosaic family plotlines doesn't seem quite right either. The characters also seem less developed than usual, as if they're on a strict schedule for getting from Point A to Point B. It was fun seeing another take on centaurs, though I prefer Rick Riordan's take on Chiron.

[kmartin802_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

CENTAUR RISING was a sweet story that combined historical fiction with fantasy and a very engaging way. Thirteen-year-old Arianne lives on a horse farm with her mother and her younger brother Robbie. Robbie is six and a thalidomide baby who was born with grave physical deformities. He doesn't have a pelvis his hands which are fused together grow out of his elbows. There is nothing wrong with his brains, though. He is full of six-year-old jokes.They get up in the night one August to watch the Perseid meteor showers and Arianne sees an unusual flash of light. Some time later they learn that their elderly pony Agora is pregnant. When she gives birth almost a year later, her baby is a centaur. The family and their vet Dr. Herks immediately decide to keep the birth a secret. But secrets have a way of getting out.In the quiet before they do, the family watches the centaur they've named Chiron, but call Kai, grow and learn and bond with them all. Kai quickly grows through the stages of babyhood and toddlerhood. Then he is discovered and many, including the rock star father who abandoned the family after Robbie was born, are eager to exploit him. It takes good planning and lots of love and luck to come up with a way to protect Kai but still give him a purpose.Yolen interweaves information about therapy horses and information about Greek gods into this engaging story. But the core of the story is about love. Fans of horses and fantasies will enjoy this delightful story.