A Horse for Mary Beth

Riding Academy #1

by Alison Hart

Mary Beth is delighted to be attending Foxhall Academy, until she discovers that her roommates are all avid horseback riders, and Mary Beth signs up for the junior riding program, even though she is terrified of horses. Reading Level, 4.5.

Genres: Horses, Childrens, Contemporary, Boarding School

123 pages, Paperback

First published March 29, 1994

About the author

Alison Hart is a pseudonym for writer Alice Leonhardt

A Virginia author of over twenty mysteries and historical fiction novels for children and teens, loves “writing books that keep young readers glued to the pages.” At the age of seven she wrote, illustrated and self-published The Wild Dog, a book which she shows to readers to make the point that it is never too early to be an author.

Reviews

[Sarah Ryder · Rating 2 out of 5]

An older series (that’s a LITTLE bit dated, haha) that I used to love as a kid and one of the ones that piqued my interest in reading.

While a bit dated the characters and their struggles felt very real even if they were a bit too whiny at times. Mary Beth overcoming her fear of horses and riding along with the “ghost” subplot were the things I used to love best about this book, and I enjoyed revisiting it. ☺️

Content: a “ghost” wanders around on campus; mild bullying

[Dez Schwartz · Rating 4 out of 5]

I decided it would be fun to re-read one of my favorite childhood series so I'm finishing out the year with the first book of 'Riding Academy'. I had forgotten so much of this. Oh man, no wonder I loved it. Not only is it about horses, but this book has a ghost story, teen vampire fandom, and Ghostbusters references. It clearly hit its target audience when it found its way into my hands!

Overall, a cute middle-grade read.

[Amanda N · Rating 5 out of 5]

This series was one of my favorites as a child and I saved all of my birthday money and bought every one. I saved them and now my ten year old is reading them 💙

[Haley · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was my favourite series as a child. I was recently able to purchase the whole series again. Very excited to revisit these books.

[Mehsi · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was looking for new Horse books + boarding school, and found this one. It looked really nice, and it sounded like the book for me. So I ordered the first book and it was just delivered yesterday.

Sadly, the book was hit and miss. Mary Beth was pretty decent, though I didn't like how she couldn't just be honest. I know she wanted to look good, but this is just silly. I am sure your roommates would have understood, and maybe even helped you if you had asked. But no, you just had to force yourself and get on a horse.
And sure with the ending we know how that ended up, but it was still a shame that she did it out of a lie, and a feeling of I must do this, instead of doing it on her own will.
She stays hit and miss, but she does get better at the end of the book and I was actually pretty proud of this girl. She even dared to speak up against Andie, and even dared to say what she thought. Good job girl!

Andie was the biggest problem in the whole book. She isn't necessarily a mean girl, but she is (and sorry) a bitch. She keeps tricking and being mean towards Mary Beth, she keeps doing mean things towards the other girls. You can clearly see your roommate is having a fear for horses and you treat her like that all the time. I was just disgusted with her behaviour. And her constant I have to get kicked out of school routine got plain and boring. Why not just give it a chance instead of going for a freaking record of how many schools you can get kicked out.

Lauren was pretty decent, but a bit boring, and she tended to just flap everything out no matter how embarrassing (the whole deal with the ghost).

Jina turned out to be a totally different character from what we see at first glance. At first glance she seems to be a rich girl who likes to have her way, but you can clearly see she is a nice girl. I would love to see more of her in the books.

There is a lot of horse stuff (duh) and it was all so much fun. Now that Mary Beth is like this I am guessing the books will speed up with all the horse stuff and feature it even more.

The mystery of the ghost was also a fun addition to the book.

Will I be reading the next book? Mm, I am not sure. The next book is Andie, and I absolutely despise that girl. But maybe I will just get it because I am sure that (if this series works like Chestnut Hill) we need to read all the books otherwise one will just miss things. And I am also curious to see if this series gets better. There was much improvement in this book, and that was only 120~ pages, so I am curious about the rest of the series.

Review first posted at https://twirlingbookprincess.com

[Elaine · Rating 3 out of 5]

Seems like an likable series for girls, especially those that are into horses. These are pre-teen girls, and they are away at boarding school. This book deals with situations that girls might find themselves in such as a new school, being partnered with someone who doesn't like you, and overcoming fear.

[Kate · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was an okay series. I liked that the four girls were each at different levels of riding as well as doing different styles (jumping, dressage, etc).

[Lee Emanuel-gooch · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read the entire series. Once other authors started writing the later stories in the series it was sometimes a bit slow. Overall, fun read for a kid!