Concerts by pint-size, beginning violinists are as common as the proud, camera-wielding parents in attendance. But drop one such girl in the middle of a horse pasture, and the melodic strains learned from Suzuki Book 1 draw a different breed of admirer.

One, mind you, that is equally attentive.

"He just came right up to her and breathed on the violin and then he stood there, right beside her," Richmond children's book author Gigi Amateau said of the day her then-9-year-old daughter, Judith, played for her equine soul mate, Albert, an albino Appaloosa with eye cancer.

"She started with 'Twinkle Twinkle' and rolled right into 'Lightly Row,'" Amateau, 43, recalled on a recent drive to the Chesterfield County horse farm where Albert lives.

"Soon the geldings gathered around, and then the mares came. She went through every song she knew and they all just stood there. . . . And it was so very evident that -- I don't know if laying claim to her is the right [wording] -- but it was very obvious to me there was a bond between Albert and Judith that didn't exist at the time between Albert and me."

Special, yes. But rare? Hardly.

"It's not rare for people to recognize themselves in their animals and find [comfort] across that human and animal experience," Amateau said. "Judith was hurting from [her father's and my] separation -- and then divorce -- so this connection with this really big animal was something she could go to. It was a well that she could draw on."

Amateau tapped the essence of that relationship for her new book, "Chancey of the Maury River" (Candlewick Press, $15.99), which she will sign at Fountain Bookstore, 1312 E. Cary St., on June 24.

The middle-grade novel is an intergenerational tale of an aging albino Appaloosa with eye cancer who renews his trust in himself and that of the young humans he nurtures. The impact of divorce, animal neglect and the realities of growing old are also layered amid the folds of Chancey and Claire's story.

In it, Amateau said, the two "big-hearted beings" mirror each other.

"Both also come with a little bit of brokenness . . . and have a bit of a stutter -- Claire with her speech and Chancey with his tendency to stumble. . . . So by meeting each other, they really find this fulfillment of their greater mission," she said.

Amateau's ability to harness challenging, real-life issues with compelling prose and an authentic voice are what earned her a mentor in iconic children's book author Judy Blume, along with a publisher for an editor, critical national honors and praise from local independent bookstores.

"She writes real stories that can happen to real kids . . . and they're moving," said Kelly Justice, owner of Fountain Bookstore. "She writes for children, but the books she writes are literature. They are as good as those of any classic children's book writer."

Amateau's editor, the president and publisher of Candlewick Press, agreed. "Her unequaled talent as a writer, to me, is that she lays the hand of grace on her characters," Karen Lotz said via e-mail from Somerville, Mass.

"Under her care, they are allowed a safe space within which to develop and find themselves, and connect to that which is most important in life and most deeply human -- even when they themselves are equine! Along with them, we the readers enter the same sacred space, where we can just be glad to feel alive, connected and cherished."

Drawing from the wellspring of her past is common for Amateau, who was born in Mississippi and grew up in Mechanicsville. The memories most deeply embedded in her spirit are those involving the time she spent with her late maternal grandparents in Tippah County, Miss.

"What I like to celebrate in my fiction is the relationship between young people and older people who love and understand each other, who honor the best in each other and who walk together on a journey where they are both changed. I don't think that's a fantasy world. It's a world I lived in. It's a world that I live in with my daughter and her friends," she said.

"In the times [of my life] that were most turbulent and nobody else thought I was worth spending a lick of time on, it was the older people in my life who said, 'You are really somethin' and let me give you a vision for yourself that nobody else around you has,'" said Amateau, who works 30 hours a week for SeniorNavigator, a statewide resource for seniors, family caregivers and adults with disabilities.

"Any feeling that you have right now as a young person, you can bet . . . that your grandmother has been through it 92 times or more," she said.

"So when she reflects back to you this vision of yourself as a successful happy, young woman or young man, she's doing that from a place of love and possibility and potential and having made it through all of those things."
Contact Penelope M. Carrington at (804) 649-6027 or pcarrington@timesdispatch.com.