This month's book reviews

A girl believes the injured mare she loves can be
a winner in a big horse race

Cale Crane, who is only eleven, lives on a horse farm in Kentucky. The farm is run-down and no longer has any horses on it. Ben, Cale's dad, trains race horses for other owners. Times were tough. In order to pay the bills, Cale's mom was talking about getting a job as a waitress in the diner in town.

One morning, Cale's dad promised to take her with him to the Kentucky Fairgrounds Racetrack to see the horses. When he slipped out, intending to leave her at home, Cale ran after the truck and insisted he keep his promise. That's how she came to first see a chestnut mare, named Sonya, who had been trained by her father. Her dad noticed the horse was favoring one leg. He felt heat in the leg and told the horse's owner she should not be raced that day. The owner, Mr. Palmer, reprimanded Ben and pointed out that he was the boss, not Ben. Mr. Palmer insisted that the horse race in that afternoon's race.

Near the end of the race, Sonya's leg crumpled under her and she fell to the ground. The emergency veterinarian reported her leg was broken. He recommended that the horse be "put down'" and started preparing the injection that would kill her. Ben had her moved back to the stable area. While there, he got into an argument with Mr. Palmer, who became angry and fired him. When Ben insisted on the pay he was owed, he offered to take the injured horse as part of his pay rather than wait for a check. That's how the Crane family horse farm ended up with a racehorse once again. Of course, the horse was severely injured and almost no one believed she would ever stand up, let alone ever race again.

As in all good horse stories, Sonya makes an astonishing recovery. Much of the credit for the horse's regaining her racing power, was due to the care and concern Cale showed her through the long recovery period. The big question, of course, was whether Sonya could race well enough to beat the bigger and more powerful horses racing in the Breeder's Cup: World Thoroughbred Championship. If she could win that race, the Crane family would not have to worry about getting back into raising race horses once again. As you may have guessed already, the book, "Dreamer," is based on the recent movie of the same name.

 

A horse story about an English girl
and coastal smugglers during the 1740's

Helena, the fourteen-year-old daughter of Lord and Lady Roseby, loved horses. She just wished her father and mother weren't so protective of her. She knew she was good with horses and liked riding much better than the other things girls were expected to do. She was proud of the fine stable of animals her father kept. Jamie, her closest friend, was the son of the housekeeper, and his father was the horse trainer at Roseby Manor. The two kids were the same age and had grown up together. Jamie helped Helena ride some of the fine horses being trained to compete in local races. Both of them knew, Lord Roseby would not approve of his daughter riding any horse but the gentle mare which he had given her.

Helena would even sneak out at night after her parents had gone to bed so she could ride horses that she was not supposed to ride. She could only do this if Jamie helped her. It was during one of her night rides that she found out about the Manor's servants being involved in smuggling goods ashore. The poorer people were engaged in smuggling because of the high taxes that the government was putting on goods in order to finance Britain's war with France.

However, there was one group of really bad criminals, called wreckers, who lured ships onto the reefs along the coast. These wreckers would rob the ships when they ran up on the rocks. Worse yet, the wreckers killed any survivors so no witnesses could tell on them. On one of her night rides, Helena saw that wreckers had thrown dirt on a signal fire that warned ships away from the reefs. She restarted the fire, but had to flee from the criminals who would have killed her if they caught her. She had to figure out how to help the authorities capture the wreckers, but not give away the fact that some of the Manor's servants and the good people of the village were engaged in smuggling. She also knew that if she was caught helping her friends, she would be arrested and thrown in prison.

Could Helena help the custom's agents capture the wreckers without giving away her friends? And what would her father think if he knew what she was up to? Not only is "Rider in the Dark" a good horse story, but a suspense-filled adventure story as well.