This is an advance, uncorrected proof. Not for resale, duplication, or reposting. Please do not quote without comparison to the finished book.
This is an advance, uncorrected proof. Not for resale, duplication, or reposting. Please do not quote without comparison to the finished book.
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This is an advance, uncorrected proof. Not for resale, duplication, or reposting. Please do not quote without comparison to the finished book.
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For Edite, who rode many wild horses over countless bridges to bring Charlotte and her daughter perfect roses, time after time all over the world with love and gratitude, respect and thanks, hugs and kisses, always —C.Z. and C.D. For my mother. —J.M.
Afterword copyright © 2024 by Crescent Dragonwagon Original text © 1964, renewed 1992 Charlotte Zolotow Trust Illustrations copyright © 2024 Julie Morstad Edited by Amy Novesky • Book design by Melissa Nelson Greenberg
This is an advance, uncorrected proof. Not for resale, duplication, or K , an imprint of ABRAMS. All rights reserved. No portion of this book Publishedreposting. in 2024 by C Please do not quote without may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, mechanical, electronic, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission comparison to the finished book.from the publisher. These images were created using watercolor, graphite, pastel, pencil, crayons, and digital. ameron
ids
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data available. ISBN: 978-1-951836-74-0 • Printed in China • 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Cameron Kids books are available at special discounts when purchased in quantity for premiums and promotions as well as fundraising or educational use. Special editions can also be created to specifications. For details, contact specialsales@abramsbooks.com or the address below.
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Children’s Books
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A rose, a bridge, and a wild black horse WORDS BY CHARLOTTE ZOLOTOW • PICTURES BY JULIE MORSTAD AFTERWORD BY CRESCENT DRAGONWAGON This is an advance, uncorrected proof. Not for resale, duplication, or reposting. Please do not quote without comparison to the finished book.
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Guess what I’ll do, said the girl to her mother.
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When I’m grown up, I’ll break rocks in half for you with my bare hands.
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I’ll capture a wild black horse
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and tame him for you to ride.
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I’ll climb mountains and bring you a stone from the top.
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I’ll swim across oceans and bring you a shell from the bottom.
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I will do all your arithmetic for you.
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I’ll win a race in the fastest car of all and take you for a ride at a hundred miles an hour.
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I’ll fight anyone you don’t like and win.
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I’ll build you a bridge that is bigger than any bridge in the world.
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And a castle to live in. This is an advance, uncorrected proof. Not for resale, duplication, or reposting. Please do not quote without comparison to the finished book.
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And I’ll pick the pinkest rose for you to smell.
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Then I’ll leave you a friend to keep you company, while I explore the world.
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Afterword “All of these / are families,” wrote Charlotte Zolotow long ago, in a never-published snippet I found on a piece of a yellow paper. Charlotte, my mother, died in 2013, at 98. I look after her writing, both her published books and such snippets. We were—Charlotte and me, my father, my brother—a family. All of us are part of many families. When Charlotte was a little girl, her family was her mother and father (my grandparents), and a bossy older sister (my aunt Dot). But families aren’t just brothers and sisters, parents and children, uncles and aunts. Charlotte believed, as I do, that those we choose to love are also family. When Charlotte first wrote A Rose, a Bridge, and a Wild Black Horse in 1964, she dedicated it to two people who were part of her friend-family: Ursula Nordstrom and Susan Hirschman. The three friends all worked at Harper & Row, a book publisher. Ursula was Charlotte’s boss and mentor; Susan, like Charlotte, was an editor. “To Ursula Nordstrom, who gave me the thought, and Susan Hirschman, who named it,” she wrote. When I was grown up and myself a writer, and Charlotte very old, I asked her to tell me the stories of how she came to write her books. We spent afternoons talking, book by book. But my mother wrote almost a hundred published books. We didn’t get around to all of them, to my regret. Thus, I don’t know the specifics that sparked A Rose, a Bridge, and a Wild Black Horse. But I can guess. In the story as she wrote it, a big brother tells his little sister all things he plans do for her. Thisa big is an advance, uncorrected proof. Charlotte’s own children were brother (Stephen), and me, his little sister. But my brother and Not for resale, duplication, or I didn’t have this kind of relationship; Charlotte and her sister Dorothy did. Dorothy, strikingly reposting. Please not quote without beautiful and confident, was devoted to the shyer do Charlotte. The sisters loved each other. They also comparison to the finished book. drove each other crazy, throughout their lives. Perhaps Charlotte said to Ursula, “I don’t know what to do about my bossy sister.” I imagine Ursula saying, “Write about it.” The dedication to Ursula, “who gave me the thought,” bears this out. So does what Charlotte always said when she was asked where she got ideas: “Oh, usually something in my adult life, a feeling, something that happened, sparks something from my childhood. It’s a double-exposure—adult awareness combined with the memory of what it seemed to me when I was a child.”
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Before there was digital photography, “double exposures” were accidental photographs, mistakes created when film images were unintentionally layered over each other in the dark room. These revealed some of each image, combining them in a dreamlike, haunting way. What overlaid layers created A Rose, a Bridge, and a Wild Black Horse? First, I think, was Charlotte’s relationship with her own big sister. And Charlotte’s son, my brother, had big fantasies. He vaguely remembers discussing with her adventures he’d like to have. I think she took these, combined them with memories of her older sister, and imagined what it would be like had he offered them to his little sister, me. Perhaps she hoped that my brother would like me in the same grand-gestured, protective way Dorothy did. In several of her books, you can see her wish for this. So, she did what writers do—she made it up. The rose: could it have come from the roses my father grew in the backyard? The bridge: was it the Tappan Zee, just up the Hudson from where we lived? The horse: was it from my own horse obsession? My brother was a mathematical genius, with a wish for fast cars and daredevil activities. I think Charlotte combined all this with her memories, hopes, and feelings. Thisthoughtful is an advance, uncorrected proof. For this new edition, Amy, my wise, editor, wondered if, Not for resale, duplication, or given my relationship to Charlotte, the story could be a daughter making reposting. Please do to not without promises to her mother. I thought this was brilliant. It seemed me quote that comparison to the finished book. this made the story truer. Illustrator Julie Morstad’s charming, funny, heartfelt illustrations capture the love and understanding of this mother and daughter perfectly. It also speaks to the eventual independence that all parents and children must one day have from each other. It is Charlotte who has now gone off to explore whatever world follows this one. I remain here, gratefully, with all she left me, as well as my many friends, my chosen family, to keep me company.
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