Taking the Reins

American Girl: Innerstar University

by Alison Hart, Arcana Studios (Illustrator)

You love riding horses at the stable, but you steer clear of competition. Whenever there's an audience, your confidence heads for the hills. Then one of the school's best riders gets injured and asks if you'll ride her quarterhorse, Silver Sky, in the next event. Do you find another way to help? Do you fake confidence and climb on? And what if you lose your cool in the middle of the jump course? Take the reins and see what happens. If you believe enough in yourself and in Sky, you can both hold your heads high.

Genres: Childrens, Chapter Books, Horses, Choose Your Own Adventure, Young Adult, Animals

120 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 2010

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

[Chuzzy · Rating 2 out of 5]

They never give you courage in these books.

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

I used to love these choose your own adventure type books when I was a kid! And they're still just as fun! Ashley and I read and re-read this one together.

[Sarah · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is about how a girl is afraid to ride a horse.You get to choose what you want to happen in the end

[Anna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Taking the Reins is a solid entry in the Innerstar U series. The details about the world of horse competitions are interesting and still accessible even to readers who don't know much about horses. The plot structure--allowing the reader to make different choices in the week leading up to the competition that affect the results of the competition--works well with the choose-your-own-adventure format. A few of the possible story paths felt a little disjointed, but most were fairly smooth. I appreciated that this book did less "telling the reader how they feel" than some of the others have--in fact, some of the choices are "who do you believe?" or "how do you feel?" It felt like there was more room for the main character to have a range of personalities.

[Andrea Day]

My daughter (who's a bit of a reluctant reader) *loved* this book. I think the "choose your own adventure" books are great for kids who might not be thrilled to read a "traditional" chapter book at first. I've read it to her a gazillion times because she wants to know all the endings. It's tiring for my voice (haha!), but I'm glad she's found something she likes. We will probably be reading more in the series.

[vixen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this entire series it helps me remember why I love reading. The readers decisions choose the direction the book goes and I find myself going back and picking other choices to read different endings. I recommend this to anyone who wants to start reading doesn’t matter if your 7 or 107 these books make reading fun again

[Eileen · Rating 3 out of 5]

American Girl- Choose your own adventure

[Alyssa · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked this book more than I thought I would. It's an American Girl book, so the endings are nicer than most Choose Your Own Adventure type books I read as a kid -- everything works out no matter which path you choose. But I did have fun trying to figure out which path would get me the blue ribbon.

[Rebekah Perea · Rating 1 out of 5]

my mom made me read it! :(

[Miriam · Rating 4 out of 5]

sam doesn’t like it because he didn’t win the horse jumps

[Horace Mann Family Reading Challenge · Rating 4 out of 5]

It talks about being confident. I.M.