Rodeo Rocky by Jenny Oldfield

Rodeo Rocky is the second book in the Horses of Half Moon Ranch series for tween girls by Jenny Oldfield. As I noted in my post about the first book, Wild Horses, I actually liked this book better for a few reasons.

It was a little less action-packed than the first book, which took place during a relatively short period of time and had more elements of suspense. I actually thought the differences made Rodeo Rocky more interesting and a little stronger. The action-suspense story probably was appropriate for the debut book, though, I suppose.

One thing that surprised me was how Rodeo Rocky took a stance on some issues, such as the abuse many animals suffer in the rodeo. Within the first few pages, as the main character had started questioning the ways the animals were treated at her first rodeo. Her horror grew and ultimately fueled her and her mom's decision to rescue a wild mustang who had been badly treated in the wild horse races.

The rest of the book continued to impress me as well, as I thought Oldfield did an excellent job of accurately describing Rocky's training and the challenges they faced.

I have to admit that while I liked the first book, and I thought the series would be great for young girls, I wasn't as excited about it from an adult's perspective. Rodeo Rocky, on the other hand, I enjoyed thoroughly, and I plan on checking out the other books as they come out.

I also have to say that after reading the second book, I think even more highly of the series as books for young girls. I like that the descriptions were realistic, for one thing, but I especially like that the series encourages young girls to think about horses as feeling creatures with a right to humane treatment.

Wild Horses by Jenny Oldfield

A few weeks ago, I was surprised to get an email from a representative of Sourcebooks, a publisher with a new tween series, The Horses of Half Moon Ranch by Jenny Oldfield. She had found me via my Pony Tales Blog, and asked if I'd be interested in reviewing the first two books in the series.

Anyone who reads my blog regularly knows that I enjoy children's and young adult books. Plus, like any other horse-crazy girl I read a lot of horse stories when I was younger, so I was interested to see what the girls are reading these days.

I thought Wild Horses was a good debut book for the series, although as you'll see in my next post, I actually liked the second book better.

Wild Horses has all the makings of good juvenile fiction: The main character was a couple years older than the intended readers, the action started quickly, etc. The adults aren't absent, as in many children's and young adult books, but the main character is always the hero of the hour — that is, the adults aren't stepping in to save her. Instead, she's usually getting rid of the adults and saving the day herself.

Of course, the book is fairly short (about 150 pages with larger text and spacing), so it didn't take me long to read — but it was kind of like a little vacation, reminding me of when I was a kid and would devour Black Beauty and The Black Stallion and the other classic horse books in one or two sittings. I'll bet this series is going to make quite a few little horse-crazy girls very, very happy!

The Great Gilly Hopkins by Katherine Paterson

I'm really behind on my book list, so over the next few days I'm going to try to catch up to where I am right now.

I readKatherine Paterson's The Great Gilly Hopkins way back in November, about a month and a half ago. (Yes, I'm that behind!!) Like In Cold Blood and Beloved, reading this book was my tribute to October's Banned Books Week.

The fact that Gilly Hopkins has been challenged both amuses me and makes me angry. Reading it, the only reason for banning it that I could discern was the fact that it tells the truth about what foster care is like for many kids — and as far as I can tell, Paterson does a pretty good job of getting into the head of a foster child and demonstrating where some of the discipline problems might come from.

But really, we can't have our nation's children — let alone the adults — knowing what foster care is really like. They might actually sympathize with foster children!