Horse Spy

Saddle Club #94

by Bonnie Bryant

When Carole Hanson learns that the newly elected president of a Middle Eastern country will be visiting Washington with his horse-crazy daughter, it seems only natural to write the girl a letter inviting her to come for a ride at Pine Hollow. Carole thinks she might get a reply with an interesting stamp on it. Instead of a stamp, however, Carole gets men with dark suits and sunglasses who walk around Pine Hollow talking into their lapels, looking for spies in the hayloft, and asking for security clearance for horses. Isn't this a little extreme? Especially since the four girls only wanted to go on a trail ride!

But when a real spy turns up at Pine Hollow, The Saddle Club rides to the rescue to protect national horse safety!

Genres: Horses, Childrens, Young Adult, Middle Grade

288 pages, Paperback

First published September 12, 2000

About the author

American author of children's books. She is best known for creating the intermediate horse book series The Saddle Club, which was published from October 1988 until April 2001. The Saddle Club chronicled the adventures of thirteen-year-old Lisa Atwood and twelve-year-olds Stephanie "Stevie" Lake and Carole Hanson. The series was static in time; the girls never aged in 101 books, 7 special editions, and 3 Inside Stories.

Bonnie Bryant also wrote two spin-off series: Pony Tails, aimed at beginning readers, and Pine Hollow, aimed at teenage readers. The 16 Pony Tails books followed the lives of eight-year-olds May Grover, Corey Takamura, and Jasmine James. Pine Hollow featured Carole, Lisa, Stevie, and their new friends in a series set four years after The Saddle Club. Unlike The Saddle Club, Pine Hollow conformed to a realistic timeline. The 17 books took place over the span of less than a year. Later a television show called The Saddle Club, based on the books, was filmed in Australia.

Bonnie Bryant wrote at least 38 The Saddle Club books and 2 Pine Hollow books herself; after that they were taken over by a team of ghostwriters, a common practice in long-running children's book series. Ghostwriters for the Saddle Club and Pine Hollow books included Caitlin Macy (sometimes credited as Caitlin C. Macy), Catherine Hapka, Sallie Bissell, Kimberly Brubaker Bradley, Helen Geraghty, Tina deVaron, Cat Johnston, Minna Jung, and Sheila Prescott-Vessey.

Bonnie Bryant is also the author of many novelizations of movies, including Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, The Karate Kid, and Honey, I Blew Up the Kid, written under her married name, B.B. Hiller. She also collaborated in the ghostwriting of The Baby-sitters Club Super Special #14: BSC in the USA, published under the name of its creator, Ann M. Martin.

Bonnie Bryant was born and raised in New York City. She met her husband, Neil W. Hiller, in college, where they both worked on the campus newspaper. They had two sons, Emmons Hiller and Andrew Hiller. Neil Hiller died in 1989. Many of Bonnie's books are dedicated to him.
***from wikipedia.org

Reviews

[Kerri · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another fun entry in the series. Carole writes a letter to the daughter of a President of a Middle Eastern country, inviting her to ride at the stables when she visits Washington with her father. Carole is expecting a stamp from a foreign country, to give to her own father, but is startled to learn the girl may just take her up on the offer -- if Pine Hollow gets security clearance. Meanwhile, two champion horses are being temporarily trained at the stables and the Saddle Club get to help. The stakes of competition are high and quickly take a serious turn. One of the mothers is willing to take steps to try and remove a horse she considers a threat to her daughter and of course the Saddle Club get caught up in it.

Also, Veronica is an infuriating idiot, but I almost admire her unshakable faith in the fact that her ever so important father can talk or buy her out of any situation. It's sad, alarming but a bit funny as well. If only if didn't feel like an accurate reflection of the fact that people so often feel like money and privilege make you exempt from behavioural standards. If only that didn't seem to actually be true!

[Claire · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'd never read this one originally and coming to it as an adult the blurb definitely sounded like there was an alarmingly high possibility it was going to come off in a 90s-but-still-racist kind of way, and I was delighted that it really did seem to avoid that. This is a really well done MG book and it's clear that Bryant had really refined and improved over the years jumping from the early books to the later ones.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Felt some real tension when they were riding against the spy!

[Sophia · Rating 5 out of 5]

it was a really good horse book I loved the friendship in it and helping each other.

[Tufi · Rating 3 out of 5]

SPOILERS

It's about a spy of horses, not an actual spying horse.