Storm Horse — Nick Garlick

With his mother missing and his father dead, twelve-year-old Flip's new home is a remote Dutch island. Menaced by the local bullies and followed everywhere by a mysterious girl, he wonders how he'll ever adapt to life on his uncle's farm.

But everything changes the day a sinking ship leaves a horse drowning in the waves. Risking his life to rescue it, Flip is told he may keep the horse -- but only if he can teach it how to work for its keep. From that moment on a friendship grows. But can a boy and a horse really save each other? And what other dark storm threaten their hard-won happiness?