Middle Grade Contemporary
Eleven -year-old Zoe, fiercely independent and determined to survive on her own in the wonder of California’s coastal wilderness, encounters her first friend: a wild zebra, shunned from Hearst Castle.
Zoe has plans to run away, but her plans are set into motion prematurely when she narrowly escapes one of her father’s schemes. Barely surviving on her own in the Santa Lucia mountains without supplies or fresh water, Zoe encounters a wild… zebra? The wounded zebra, a remnant of the castle’s exotic and glamorous past, is just as ill-equipped and out-of-place as Zoe. Together, the two misfits forage while forging a loyal friendship, which includes keeping watch over each other at night and wobbly rides over golden hillsides. When the zebra falls in an accident, Zoe seeks help from an eccentric hermit named Rhoda, even though it means turning herself over to foster care and facing her father in jail. Back in civilization, Zoe makes the riskiest choice of all: to trust another human.
I am represented by Caitlin White and Linda Epstein at Emerald City Literary Agency.