Amber Brown Horses Around

Amber Brown #12

by Bruce Coville, Paula Danziger, Elizabeth Levy

The most colorful chapter-book character is going to camp!Amber Brown is one happy camper. She and her best friend, Justin, are spending the summer at Camp Cushetunk. Learning to ride Cinnamon, the sweetest horse ever, is so amazing that Amber doesn’t even mind shoveling her poop. Then Amber becomes the target of a series of pranks. Certain she knows who is behind them, Amber and her friends come up with the biggest prank ever to get revenge.  But the outcome is not what they expect.

Turns out horsing around can lead to big trouble. But sometimes, Amber is surprised to learn, big trouble can lead to big changes for the better.

Genres: Childrens

226 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 1, 2014

About the author

Bruce Coville was born in Syracuse, New York, in 1950. His family lived in farm territory, about twenty miles north of Syracuse. Bruce grew up around the corner from his grandparents' dairy farm, where he spent a great deal of time as a child, dodging cows and chores to the best of his ability. As a young reader he loved Mary Poppins and Dr. Dolittle, and still has fond memories of rising ahead of the rest of his family so he could huddle in a chair and read THE VOYAGES OF DR. DOLITTLE. He also read lots of things that people consider junk (Nancy Drew, the Hardy Boys, Tom Swift, and zillions of comic books). His only real regret is the time he spent watching television, when he could have been reading instead. (A mind is a terrible thing to waste!)

His first book, THE FOOLISH GIANT, was published in 1978. It was illustrated by his wife, Katherine, whom he had married in 1969. This was followed in 1979 by SARAH'S UNICORN, also illustrated by Katherine. After a long period of working separately, the Covilles began collaborating again with SPACE BRAT and GOBLINS IN THE CASTLE, both published in 1992.

Before getting published Bruce earned his living as a toymaker, a gravedigger, a cookware salesman, an assembly line worker, and finally as an elementary school teacher (second and fourth grades). He left teaching in 1981 to devote himself to becoming a full time writer - though it took another five years to achieve that goal!)

Bruce has published over 100 books, which have appeared in over a dozen countries around the world and sold more than sixteen million copies. Among his most popular titles are MY TEACHER IS AN ALIEN, INTO THE LAND OF THE UNICORNS, and THE MONSTER'S RING. In 2001 he founded Full Cast Audio, an audiobook company dedicated to creating unabridged, full cast recordings of the best in children's and young adult literature.

Reviews

[Linda J.B. · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think I jumped in the middle or the end of the series of Amber Brown Horses Around by Paula Danzier, and fellow authors...but that was ok since I was brought up to speed with a few questions I had that were answered about her situations in her life and her friends.



I found the book very refreshing in the story line about the importance of understanding the emotions of the personalities of new and old friends, the little stress of those who you don't get along with, and the budding feelings that are coming to a new level with her best friend Justin, all so very true to life of a fourth grade student.



The dilemma of divorce and ending up with two sets of parents played an extremely important role in this book. Being sent off to camp by her Mom and stepdad was at first an exciting adventure, since seeing her best friend Justin was going to be the best part, as they had been separated I'm presuming from Amber's parents divorce.



Camp sounded good until Amber finds out that she will be bunking with her not-so much-school friend, Hannah. As camp life begins Amber realizes her love for a special horse, but when pranks begin to happen to Amber, she finally decides enough is enough, as she presumes who the prankster is. Could pay back be the answer?



A valuable lesson is learned in the book, as I'm not going to give it away... but let's just say that this is an amazing read for middle school kids since there are strong adult roles that are fair and just and very well established. I will say, at the end of the book, I welled up with tears at the end result...who knew?

[Jen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I mostly listened to this one via audio as I have the previous books. This is the last book in the series and I felt it wrapped things up well. I’ve always loved books that take place at camp so this was a fun setting to read about. It was nice to see Amber reunite with Justin and see how he has matured since the beginning.

Amber’s inability to swim was relatable to me so I appreciated those scenes. I especially liked how Amber bonded with Cinnamon. And while I thoroughly enjoyed the revenge scenes, I also liked how the book addressed the trouble with jumping to conclusions and about forgiveness.

How Amber’s parents reacted at the end was wonderful, especially considering how things were at the beginning of the first book. All in all, this has been a fun series to read. I am also impressed with the writing and character development that Bruce Coville and Elizabeth Levy brought to the series after Paula passed away.

[Annie Flanders · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am sad. This is the final Amber Brown book. I am sad that so far there are no more [this one was published in 2014] It is the third Amber Brown book to be written by Bruce Coville and Elizabeth Levy.

In this book - Amber and her friends go off to camp for a month. The friends include her good buddy Justin Daniels - who flies in from his home in Alabama - as well as her two female friends Brandi Colwin and Kelly Green. Amber's nemesis - Hannah Burton - is also at Camp Cushetunk.

Unfortunately for Amber her two best friends Brandi and Kelly are not in the same cabin as her. She has to share with Hannah Burton. So let the adventures begin.

The best parts of the book are that Amber not only learns to swim but she also bonds with a beautiful horse named Cinnamon.

Amber has misadventures along the way - but by the end of the book - much is resolved.

[Alex Baugh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Now that Amber's mom and her boyfriend Max are married (see Amber Brown is on the Move)and they are living in a new house, life has settled down somewhat for our young protagonist. In fact, with 4th grade behind her, Amber is pretty excited about summer vacation. She is off to Camp Cushetunk with school friends Kelly Green and Brandi Colwin, but best thing of all is that best friend ever Justin Daniels will be going to camp with her, traveling all the way from Alabama, where his parents moved to a few years ago.

Worst thing ever, the night before leaving for camp, Amber finds out that Hannah Burton will be at Camp Cushetunk, too. Hannah and Amber have just never liked each other, so when she finds out that she will be bunking with Hannah instead of Kelly and Brandi, Amber begins to have doubts about camp.

But camp turns out to be fun with mostly friendly girls, campfires, songs and of course, the story about the Cushetunk Monster, or Cushy, who comes for one camper every year and lures them to the deepest part of the lake. And, although it seems that Hannah is good at everything, and Amber is good at nothing, it turns out she is a little afraid of Cushy.

And maybe Amber can't swim like her friends and has to learn how in the Polliwog area, but there's one thing she is good at. The moment she meets Cinnamon, her horse for the summer, Amber has found her skill - seems she is a natural on a horse and it seems Hannah is just as afraid of horses as she is Cushy.

But, this is camp and it doesn't take long for harmless pranks to begins. But when Amber is the object of several of them, she begins to believe that Hannah is the prankster. Then the final straw happens. Amber most definitely checked the saddle on Cinnamon, but when she comes back from the latrine, the saddle is loose and she falls right into the spot where Cinnamon just relieved herself. Hannah was there the whole time and now she can't stop laughing.

The only thing to do is prank Hannah back. But when that goes horribly wrong, Amber doesn't know what to do.

Even as Amber struggles with issues with Hannah Burton, and getting back at her pranking, there is a nice subplot about her parents connected to it. She is beginning to accept and care about Max as a step dad, realizing that he really does care about her in a fatherly way, but Amber still has trouble with her real dad's wife Isobel. When pranking Hannah blows up in her face, she learns a valuable lesson, that helps her to be able to tell her parents how she feels about their constant bickering whenever they are together. A brave thing for a young girl to do. I think many kids would like to have the courage to do the same with their fighting parents and maybe this story will help them deal with that.

That is one of the reasons why I think that the beauty of Amber Brown is that she is allowed to age and as that happens, she deals with exactly the kinds of problems so many kids face everyday. From her best friend moving away to her parents divorce and remarriages, to problems with best friends and enemies at school and now camp.

This is the third book that Bruce Coville and Elizabeth Levy have collaborated on since Paula Danziger's death and I was afraid that as they wrote more Amber Brown books, she would begin to loose the personality that Paula had given her. But, even though Amber sounds a little more mature (after all, she is heading into 5th grade), Coville and Levy have managed to keep the essence of Amber intact and she is still the lovable character that keeps her fans keep coming back.

This book is recommended for readers age 8+
This book was purchased for my personal library

This review was originally posted on Randomly Reading

[Yapha · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another stellar entry in the Amber Brown series. Amber is off to summer camp in the summer after fourth grade. She is thrilled that Justin and two other friends will be there, but not so happy that archenemy Hannah will. She learns a lot about friendship and jumping to conclusions, in a very satisfying summer adventure. For fans of the series.

[Kathy Chung · Rating 4 out of 5]

good and simple book about friendship, jumping to conclusion and forgiveness