Middle Grade Sidekick Short Review: Phoenix (2026) by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley

cover image of Phoenix by Kimerly Brubaker Bradley, published by Dial Books, 2026.

The Basics

Page Length: 176

Audiobook Length: ~4 hours

Grade Reading Level: 4+

Target Audience Age: 10-14

Goodreads Score: 3.95 out of 5

Buy it HERE

Setting: Contemporary small town, Sommer Springs, TN

Genre: Middle Grade Contemporary Fiction

Topics: Family, Friendship, Horses, Courage, Healing, Belonging

Plot: Harper dreads her new life in Sommer Springs, Tennessee. It’s nothing like Knoxville—quieter, smaller, and lonelier. Now it’s just her and her mom, and ever since “the bomb” dropped that her parents were getting divorced, everything has felt like it’s falling apart. Losing her family was bad enough, but losing her best friend, Cat, made it even worse.

What no one knows is that Harper has already uncovered the truth. She found out at school that her dad and Cat’s mom have been secretly involved—and that betrayal is what shattered both families. It’s the reason her whole world has been turned upside down, forcing her and her mom into a small, run-down house beside a horse ranch in the middle of nowhere.

Harper feels completely broken—until the day she spots a truck hauling a neglected, half-dead horse down the road. Something in her refuses to look away. She takes the horse in and, little by little, begins to nurse him back to health. As the horse grows stronger, so does she. She names him Phoenix. And through him, Harper begins to find what she thought she had lost forever: hope, strength, and a way to piece her life back together.

You might like this book if you like:

• Horseback riding

• Training/taking care of animals

• Books like: A Horse of Her Own, A Place to Hang the Moon, Black Beauty, Inside Out & Back Again, The Saddle Club

• Shows like: Heartland, Free Rein, Spirit Riding Free, Anne with an E

• Movies like: Flicka (also a book), Dreamer, A Horse Called Bear, Walk. Ride. Rodeo.

  
  

Other books written by this author: The War That Saved My Life, Fighting Words, Jefferson's Sons, The Night War, The Lacemaker and the Princess, Halfway to the Sky

Content

• Language: None

• Sex/Romance: None

• Violence/Scariness: There is a horse removed from a "kill truck" that includes somewhat graphic descriptions of mistreated and malnourished animals. There are some other mature topics covered, like parental infidelity and divorce.

• Drinking/Smoking/Drugs: None

  
  

Book Talk Read Aloud Section

*What is a book talk? (Watch a how to video here. Read my blog post here)

If you have the physical book, read pages 1-3 (through the paragraph break "It would never not be hard.")

If you don't, read the same pages in the Kindle reading sample here.