Moon in the Water by Lucy Diggs (1988) HB/DJ FIRST ED

This is a hardcover with illustrated dust jacket and a nice clear mylar protective cover.  This is an x-library, retired from childrens' library and other than the normal library markings it is tight, clean and like new condition. 

MOON IN THE WATER by LUCY DIGGS. 

ATHENEUM:  1988.  STATED FIRST EDITION.  NUMBER LINE:  10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1.  NOT PRICE CLIPPED.  

Good for nothing - a real misfit.  That was how Slim and everyone else thought of Blue Chip, the new pinto with one blue eye.  His only use was for teaching beginners.  But JoBob Draper loved Blue from the first time he saw him that fall of 1955. 

Of course JoBob knows he's a good-for-nothing misfit himself.  He's small for fourteen and he comes from an "Okie" family that struggles to make ends meet - quite different from the others at Slim's well-heeled stable.  JoBob's father is always involved in his cockfight gambling deals - always sure that the next get-rich-quick scheme will put the Drapers on Easy Street. 

So during that fall, JoBob keeps his love for Blue a secret; especially secret is his training Blue as a jumper.  When Slim discovers the secret, though, instead of getting mad, he gives Blue to JoBob.  JoBob is ecstatis.  Over that year that follows, he and Blue are a team, taking their place in the heady, gritty world of horse shows.  With Blue, JoBob feels that his real life is starting - one that will take him away from the good-for-nothing-misfit life he's always known. 

Then JoBob is confronted by treachery - and pain that he couldn't have imagined before.  If Jo Bob can learn to hope again, part of that hope will come from a girl named Mariko, a girl unlike any he has ever met. 

I ACCEPT PAYPAL ONLY.  THANKS FOR LOOKING AND HAPPY BIDDING.