Book Review Spotlight  - Rainbow by Scott Pixello

Rainbow by Scott Pixello is a sweet, heart-tugging tale of a unusual calf born minutes before her mother dies. This is not a story of loss, but one of love - love for a pet, love for family and love of the right things in life.

The story opens with Jess, an 11-year old girl and her father (a widower) working on their cattle farm during calving season. Two heifers go into labor at the same time and Jess must help deliver one of the calf's in the barn while her father works with the second heifer in the field. Once Jess helps with the birth and the mother cow dies, her father comes into the barn to discover that the calf that is born has two heads. Normally, two-headed cows do not live very long, but Rainbow defies the odds and flourishes.

Throughout the book, the depiction of farm life and the details of the harshness of that life are spot on. Jess and her father work sunrise to sunset taking care of their farm and their prized cows, only to be indebted to the bank, to friends and to family.

With unwavering love and devotion, Jess defends Rainbow and does whatever she can to stress to her father how important it is to her that they keep Rainbow with them on their farm. A series of events near the middle of the book show how cruel, conniving and ruthless some people can be when there is money to made from the exploitation of animals. But, through it all, Jess and her father keep their heads held high and the ruthless people get their just rewards.

Many parts of the book were hilarious and I could honestly see this story as a movie. The story was well written and the characters were perfectly developed. Overall, Rainbow was a very enjoyable read.

I would recommended Rainbow to young and old alike. It is good, clean fun and one of the better indie books I have read this year.