A Mythic Tale of Magical Wonders and Natural Splendors in Early California
OCEANO Horse From The Sea a coming-of-age historical novel in the classical tradition of Steinbeck's,
The Red Pony & Scott Odell's, Island Of The Blue Dolphins
The original unfinished manuscript of OCEANO. Horse from the Sea was lost during a California wildfire. It was found decades later when Stanford University requested research on the life and writings of Thomas Sanchez. The book was then completed 50 years after it was started. Today, it is a limited edition with illustrated astonishments by Sandow Birk.
The Story Adventure
Wild Girl, Niña Salvaje, a half-Latina and half-Anglo teenager in Santa Barbara, saves a drowning horse from the sea. The horse trusts only Wild Girl as its rider. At a time when girls were forbidden to ride on horses like boys, Wild Girl’s horse was decreed by powerful patriarchs to be taken from her.
With help from Raven Boy, a magical youth descended from the Rainbow People, Wild Girl flees with her horse into wilderness. Risking it all, Wild Girl and Raven Boy must outwit desperate men pursuing them through a land where cougars, bears, and condors threaten and wildfires rage. Wild Girl’s fate depends upon forging an unbreakable bond of trust with Raven Boy and mastering Nature’s rules of survival.
Editorial Comment
Thomas Sanchez’s OCEANO Horse From The Sea joins the ranks of Jack London and John Steinbeck’s nature writings celebrating the environmental wonders and natural grandeurs of California in a book inviting youthful readers to explore, learn, and be delighted by it. In our time of fast-changing climate ecology, fire threatened landscapes and endangered creatures, from bees to blue whales, OCEANO Horse From The Sea portrays a place in time never to be forgotten, always to be protected.
– Steven Gilbar
University of California Press, Editor of Natural State: A Literary Anthology of California Nature Writing
“Thomas Sanchez’s OCEANO. Horse from the Sea joins the ranks of Jack London and John Steinbeck’s nature writings celebrating the environmental wonders and natural grandeurs of California in a book inviting youthful readers to explore, learn, and be delighted by it. In our time of fast-changing climate ecology, fire threatened landscapes and endangered creatures, from bees to blue whales, OCEANO. Horse from the Sea portrays a place in time never to be forgotten, always to be protected.” – Steven Gilbar, University of California Press, Editor of Natural State: A Literary Anthology of California Nature Writing