Horses, adventure and the historical old West - mixed with a solid message for today's tweens - make this a must-read.

When a winter flood in Fresno closes school temporarily, Andi gets herself ready for a two-month
holiday riding the range on her palomino mare, Taffy. Andi is outraged when, instead, she's sent to live with a spinster aunt in San Francisco, doomed to finish the winter term of school at Miss Whitaker's Academy for Young Ladies.

Miss Whitaker's Academy is exactly what Andi expects it to be: boring. That is, until she meets her new roommate, the equally untamable Jenny, and makes the acquaintance of the timid but tenderhearted Lin Mei, a young girl who works at the school. In San Francisco, Andi finds herself exposed to a whole new world. Soon Andi discovers a disturbing secret about Lin Mei's uncle, Feng Chee, and these three new friends find themselves in more trouble than they can handle.