Spirit Riding Free: The Adventure Begins is a book by children's author Suzanne Selfors, first published May 2, 2017 by Little, Brown and Company. The book is an adaptation of "Lucky and the Unbreakable Spirit", the pilot episode of the Spirit Riding Free TV series, that fleshes out a number of details and adds scenes and characters. Expansions to the episode include a prologue set at Lucky's school and home in the city, a visit to the Gutierrez house, a subplot involving Aunt Cora trying to found a ladies' organization, and epistolary interactions between Lucky and her city friend Emma. In a variety of ways, the story of the book diverges from the chronology of events in the TV series.
Differences between the book and the show[]
- Lucky, Jim and Cora arrive in Miradero a day after Emma's birthday in the book, while they arrive on Emma's birthday in the show.
- Pru, Abigail and Maricela are already 12 in the book, while they were 11 in the show's first few episodes. This may also mean that Pru and Maricela are older than Lucky in the book's timeline.
- A railroad employee, John Mercer, greets the Prescotts after they arrive at the Miradero station, taking Jim to the office and dropping off Cora and Lucky at the house.
- On her first day of school in the book, Lucky is in her pajamas while eating breakfast, instead of in her casual default clothes as in the show. Cora forces Lucky to wear the pink dress after Jim leaves for work, while in the show Jim is present when Cora lectures Lucky about dressing formally.
- Lucky doesn't get her default clothing until the end of her first day at school, when Jim buys it for her and surprises her with it as a gift to cheer her up after a horrible first day.
Audiobook[]
An unabridged audiobook edition, read by Saskia Maarleveld, was published the same day as the book and is available on CD and on Amazon's Audible service.