In yet another of my "read over and over as a kid and lost but now found" review series, I bring you Summer Pony. In this amazing book, a young girl's parents rent a pony for her for one summer. They go to a totally run down farm where 20 ponies are being kept in horrible conditions (which in a story today would culminate in the farm owner being charged with animal cruelty, but whatever it was the 70s). She chooses a shabby, dirty, neglected pony with two different colored eyes and then proceeds to be the BEST PONY OWNER EVER.
I hate to spoil this for you because it's some serious non-stop action and drama. PONY DRAMA, people. It really doesn't get much better than this if you are an 8 year old in 1985. ( )

Ginny's family rents a pony for the summer for her. It's her first time caring for a horse, and she makes some mistakes and learns from them. ( )

A Stepping Stones book

So, this was a book that I read as a kid. I remember the cover, I remember the title, but that's about it. I had it on my personal shelf, I read it, but I couldn't tell you much more than that. I will have to go back and re-read this eventually. But for now, eh. ( )

*possible spoilers*

Okay... This is an okay book, for what it is. Cliched and short... It seems like most of the "girl gets her 1st horse/pony" books include the horse getting sick and/or hurt. I've read so many with that plot device that it's awfully cliched by now.

My very first reaction to this book was concern and surprise. If the poor pony is so sick and weak, even falling when getting out of the trailer, why on earth would Ginny ride her before getting her better? It seems that if a pony is that skinny and weak that it can barely stand, it's really bad horsecare to ride the poor thing!

I know this is a short children's book, but one of the first rules I learned about writing was "show, don't tell". And we get a LOT of telling in this book. We are told how Mokey's legs healed "two weeks later", but not shown how Ginny nursed her pony or helped with the legs. And the books tells that Ginny learned how to braid Mokey's mane and ready her for the show ring, but where were all the wonderful experiences in there? Why weren't we shown how they connected, how she learned to fix up her pony, *how* this all happened? I think it really takes away from a stable plot, when the author just "tells" everything. ( )