My Animals and Other Family

British broadcaster Balding (The Ration Book Olympics: When London Hosted the Austerity Games) grew up in a family where animals earned more respect and were better understood than its human members. This did not make Balding's childhood unhappy, but it did make it different. Her father was a racehorse trainer, and she grew up in the English countryside of the 1960s surrounded by champion steeds and a constant procession of dogs. Her life completely revolved around horses and the people who helped care for and train them. The book chronicles her experiences as a child and adolescent, with each chapter named for a horse that was paramount in her life at that point. Balding's social awkwardness as a child is endearing; many readers may identify with the ten-year-old who desperately wants to make friends but who always seems to say the wrong thing. She has no trouble interacting with a horse or dog, but dealing with her peers is a different matter.