Kat and Brandy

by Katherine Schwarzenegger Pratt, Petra Brown (Illustrator)

Overview

From New York Times bestselling author Katherine Schwarzenegger Pratt comes an inspiring, empowering, and heartwarming tale about the powerful connection between animals and humans and the enduring friendships that can change a child’s life.

Through beautiful illustrations and compelling text, the story of Brandy and Kat takes the reader on a journey where fear is transformed into courage. Where trust is earned, and love is realized.  

Kat has loved horses for as long as she can remember. She’s grown up going to the barn, watching her mom ride, and riding herself. But while out on a ride one day, her pony gets scared, and she falls off. Ever since then, Kat has been afraid to get back in the saddle—until she meets Brandy. 

Brandy is a rescue horse with a past that makes it hard for her to trust others. From the moment Kat first sees Brandy in the pasture from afar, with her pretty white coat and the unique little scar on her face, she wants to learn the horse’s story. Kat sees herself in Brandy and is intrigued, eager to get to know her better. Through patience and curiosity, Kat works through her worries and builds up the courage to get back in the saddle and ride again.

Katherine Schwarzenegger Pratt shares a heartfelt story—based on her own childhood memories with her real-life pony Brandy—complete with a letter to the reader about the bonds we have with animals that help us feel strong and confident, and sometimes even allow us to conquer fears we never thought possible.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780593385838
Publisher:	Penguin Young Readers Group
Publication date:	11/04/2025
Pages:	32
Product dimensions:	10.30(w) x 10.00(h) x 0.50(d)
Age Range:	3 - 7 Years

About the Author

Katherine Schwarzenegger Pratt is a New York Times bestselling author, mother, and host of BDA Baby. As a passionate animal advocate, Katherine works as an Ambassador for Best Friends Animal Society (bestfriends.org) and the ASPCA (aspca.org). She is also a Global Ambassador for the Special Olympics. Katherine lives with her family in Los Angeles.

Petra Brown is an acclaimed children’s book illustrator living in North Wales in the United Kingdom. Her first big picture book was Beth Shoshan’s If Big Can…I Can, which was shortlisted for the Booktrust Early Years Awards for Best Emerging Illustrator. She has since illustrated numerous children’s books and is the author and illustrator of When the Wind Blew. Find her online at www.petrab.co.uk and on YouTube @petra.illustration.

Editorial Reviews

"An unhurried, extended narrative by Schwarzenegger Pratt (Good Night, Sister) is echoed in soft-focus, digitally painted illustrations by Brown (I Love You, Jingle Bell Baby), which capture the tender bond between human and pony, and vividly evoke the stable and riding ring where that bond deepens, one step at a time." —Publishers Weekly

From the Publisher

2025-06-13
With her third picture book, Schwarzenegger Pratt tells a story about a girl’s life-changing love for a horse, inspired by her own childhood.

Kat, a pigtailed, white-presenting girl who wears a pink headband, watches wistfully as her mother takes riding lessons. She makes “it all look so easy.” Kat’s love of horses conflicts with her fear of them; when she was younger, she was thrown from a startled pony. Kat wants to try riding again, “but the fall [keeps] replaying over and over in her head.” What will it take for Kat to face her fear? The answer is Brandy, a rescue pony who has a skittish personality that Kat can relate to; they gradually develop a rapport. There’s good stuff here on the benefits of an animal companion and on the rewards of patience, but will readers have the endurance to get there? Low on action, the story drags, hampered by dull, cliched writing (“giddy with excitement”). It’s hard to imagine the narrative holding the interest of a kid who, unlike Kat, isn’t already smitten with horses. Brown’s delicate digital paintings show a steady hand, and her art has a determinedly bucolic look that would be at home in an American Girl book.

For hippophiles, and probably only hippophiles. (author’s note, national resources to help horses)(Picture book. 3-7)

Kirkus Reviews