A little girl finds the courage to ride when her mother gives her a tiny golden pony that radiates self-confidence.

Ever wondered why we knock on wood, cross our fingers, or say “white rabbits” on the first day of the month? Dive in and learn about fascinating traditions and superstitions from all over the world! The Good Luck Book explores the surprising - and sometimes scary - history of the world’s most practiced traditions and superstitions (and plenty more that you probably won’t have heard of!). Discover superstitions old and new from China to Chile, the USA to the Ukraine. Learn how and why they started, and why people still participate in them today. Featuring fascinating topics, including animals, nature, sport, life events, the human body, and lucky locations, The Good Luck Book is packed with bold original illustrations, fun facts, and the origin stories behind rituals and superstitions. Ideal for young readers curious about world culture and why we do the things we do, this colorful and charming book will amaze and entertain.

A girl's desire to help a starving horse changes his future, as well as hers.

Churchill Downs is the epicenter of Kentucky's equine heritage and the most storied racetrack in the world. More than a thousand workers come to the backside of Churchill Downs on any given day during a meet. Before sunrise, seven days a week, stable hands, hot walkers, grooms, outriders, jockeys, and more tend to the well-being of the horses and the track. Most will never stand in the Winner's Circle. There could be no Kentucky Derby without their contributions.Better Lucky Than Good is the most caring, in-depth look into the lives and stories of equine workers ever published--and it was written by the people who live and work on the backside of Churchill Downs. The book's 32 authors include grooms, hot walkers, exercise riders, a clocker, an outrider, assistant trainers, a jockey, a starting gate crew member, a pony person, a horticulturist, a silks seamstress, shedrow foremen, a tack and saddle man, a security guard, a horse tattooer, trainers, an alcohol and drug abuse counselor, a farm manager, a chaplaincy associate, and many more. "Every person I know who has ever 'written a horse book,' or worked extensively as a journalist covering the world of the track, has at some point had a version of this thought: If somebody would just do a good oral history, interviewing the people who actually work with the horses--the grooms and riders and ferriers and assistant trainers, the folks on the "backside"--it would be worth 10,000 pages of even the best literary description of the sport. Now the Louisville Story Program has done this, and done it beautifully. It's no exaggeration to say that this book has needed to exist for 200 years."--John Jeremiah Sullivan, author of Pulphead and Blood Horses