Here's a review of the Pony Pals book series. It was a response to -- "I need age-appropriate high level reading suggestions..."

Get her the Pony Pals books.
Get her the Pony Pals books.
Get her the Pony Pals books.
These are very good--very realistic, even to a grownup who gets skeptical about the idea that authors can make grownups behave in illogical ways just to make kids happy.
There are 3 girls who love ponies; they meet and form an informal "club."
Each book, they run into a real-life problem
-a new family buys the land that has their riding trail on it, and fences off the land; how can they convince the family to let them ride through?
-one of the girls is struggling in school, and her parents are going to take away her pony if her grades don't improve, but no matter how hard she studies, she can't do better; how can they get her parents to not punish her when she's trying so hard?
-someone is setting traps along the pony trail and hurting wildlife; how can they figure out who it is and convince them to stop?
-a visiting girl is snotty about the ponies, and afraid of them; how can they help her stop being afraid? and what do they do when they're trapped out in the woods, near the train, during a bad snowstorm?
The solutions are equally as realistic, even from a grownup point of view:
-the fenced-in trail: they get other grownups to write testimonials about how responsible they are, and then they help the family with the sheep they're penning up with their fences, and then they volunteer to serve as "babysitters" of the sheep during their afternoon rides while the new family is at work.
-the girl w/ homework trouble: they confide in another grownup, who suspects dyslexia; and the teacher, in meeting w/ the parents, shares his similar suspicion. and the other grownup meets w/ parents to assure that caring for a pony will be good rather than bad
One thing I loved--the books don't gloss over the work that goes into having a pony--or school. But those lessons are very gently and organically woven into the stories.
They're absolutely wonderful. The dramas/conflicts are believable and strong, especially to a kid. The solutions are believable and won't lead your kid to think that grownups should just give kids what they want every time.

Posted by talley sue in NYC on Thu, May 24, 07 at 17:34