Dear Reader,
I have been asked what inspired me to write and publish Mystery at Silver Key Stables. The truth is that Mr. Luther, my seventh grade English teacher, assigned a writing project to our class that was originally supposed to be a mystery story written in five pages or less. I really felt I couldn’t write a good mystery in five pages or less, so I asked Mr. Luther if it could be longer. He replied, "Yes, but if you want me to actually read it to the end, you will have to make it interesting." That, along with the fact we were snowed in during most of my Christmas vacation, is honestly the set of circumstances that combined to produce Mystery at Silver Key Stables.
Donating all of the proceeds from my book to non-profit, charitable organizations that help rescue, rehabilitate, and protect horses from cruelty and neglect seemed the very best way to give my book a "real" happy ending -- so I created the Charity Book Series®.
Some people have also asked me why, if I love horses so much, I don’t own one myself. I have a very good reason for this. An average horse lives to be twenty to thirty years old. This means that a horse might pass through many different owners in its life. Some owners outgrow them or become disinterested in the horse they once loved, after it has outlived its usefulness to them. Some of these pet horses end up at auctions and slaughter houses because their owners are no longer willing or able to care for them. This is a very sad ending to give to a friend. Some horses are lucky and are helped by the kind people who run charitable organizations to rescue these horses from sad lives and sometimes terrible deaths. Some of these horses end up at stables with riding schools where children can ride and love them. I can always find a horse somewhere that belongs to someone else that needs to be ridden, enjoyed, cared for, and loved.
In 2010 I was honored by the Humane Society of the United States as a national finalist with honorable mention for the Humane Teen of the Year Award. You can read more about my charitable work on the behalf of horses at http://www.humaneteen.org/?q=node/1258.
I have always been very good at loving horses—LOTS of horses. I think that is my specialty…
http://www.humanesociety.org/teens
Alexandra Joy Gritta
Alexandra Joy Gritta, now a teen, has always been a voracious reader. Her favorite places have always been book stores and libraries. Quite frankly, she began, “departing the text” very early in her young life. Alexandra found that sometimes stories or their illustrations just did not quite satisfy her, and began to critique those books when she was about four years of age. She wrote and illustrated three children’s picture books between the ages of seven and eight. These early works were well received in her community, and accepted into the permanent collections of both Alexandra’s school and community libraries.
Always a great lover of horses, at twelve years of age Alexandra developed a compelling desire to make her own personal contribution to horse genre literature. Following her earlier works, Alexandra added her literary voice to the written chorus of homage to the horse with her first published chapter book, Mystery at Silver Key Stables, a debut work and the first book in the Charity Book Series®. Mystery at Silver Key Stables has nominated for the 2009 ASPCA Henry Bergh Charitable Book Award.
Alexandra lives in Oregon.