Post by tintin on Feb 19, 2013 21:00:15 GMT 1
This is the first of a two part series
Unfortunately my two parts were from different publishers and my first part was published later than my second and seemed to have been messed about a little.
Two children, Mick and Janice, live in the town in straitened circumstances. They are horse lovers and Mick's ambition is to pass his 11+ and be a Vet. Mother falls pregnant with twins so they go to foster parents in the country, Mr and Mrs Millet. On the first night a stray pony wanders into the garden.
The book is about their misadventures as they covertly go about trying to help the Pony who they christen Prince.
Prince is actually called Blue Grass and his owners are abroad, but he is living at a local stable, but keeps getting out and going back to his old home.
The scrapes the children get into cause a certain friction with their foster parents who initially seem very forbidding, but are actually OK.
Eventually everything is OK with David, of the Pat and David books, helping out. The way he is introduced is great. The children are watching the TV when he appears as a famous show jumper! I felt like cheering! I find him one of the most likeable characters in horse literature and to see he had made it was a tonic.
The book is a bit grim and gritty. This is life fairly near th bottom of the pile and you feel for th young kids separated from mum, dad and the old neighbourhood. That said they have not read "How to Win Friends and Influence People". A little of Mick particularly goes a long way.
The Cavalier edition I have re-christens Janice as Katie and Prince/Blue Grass is Chestnut (presumably to match the pony from The School of Infantry Saddle Club on the cover) whereas in the older book he is grey.
Well written, but a trifle waring, particularly if, like me, you suffer from "vicarious embarassment"
I felt quite old through a lot of this book, reading it with knuckles in my mouth repeatedly saying to myself - "No, Children No!" like the chef in South Park.
Unfortunately my two parts were from different publishers and my first part was published later than my second and seemed to have been messed about a little.
Two children, Mick and Janice, live in the town in straitened circumstances. They are horse lovers and Mick's ambition is to pass his 11+ and be a Vet. Mother falls pregnant with twins so they go to foster parents in the country, Mr and Mrs Millet. On the first night a stray pony wanders into the garden.
The book is about their misadventures as they covertly go about trying to help the Pony who they christen Prince.
Prince is actually called Blue Grass and his owners are abroad, but he is living at a local stable, but keeps getting out and going back to his old home.
The scrapes the children get into cause a certain friction with their foster parents who initially seem very forbidding, but are actually OK.
Eventually everything is OK with David, of the Pat and David books, helping out. The way he is introduced is great. The children are watching the TV when he appears as a famous show jumper! I felt like cheering! I find him one of the most likeable characters in horse literature and to see he had made it was a tonic.
The book is a bit grim and gritty. This is life fairly near th bottom of the pile and you feel for th young kids separated from mum, dad and the old neighbourhood. That said they have not read "How to Win Friends and Influence People". A little of Mick particularly goes a long way.
The Cavalier edition I have re-christens Janice as Katie and Prince/Blue Grass is Chestnut (presumably to match the pony from The School of Infantry Saddle Club on the cover) whereas in the older book he is grey.
Well written, but a trifle waring, particularly if, like me, you suffer from "vicarious embarassment"
I felt quite old through a lot of this book, reading it with knuckles in my mouth repeatedly saying to myself - "No, Children No!" like the chef in South Park.