Jeanne Betancourt

An instructive story the group of 3 pre-teen girls who all have ponies. This summer, when they provide pony rides at a local fair, a younger girl falls in love with Acorn, Anna's pony, and Anna agrees to let her visit but warns her she needs to follow safety rules. We never read about her initiating any safety training before Rosalie impulsively does something (e.g. putting out a huge pile of feed would cause bloating), resulting in Anna criticizing her & getting upset.
Then Rosalie doesn't show up at her summer day camp and the friends are enlisted to ride to search for her.
The writing is pretty flat. Each time one girl says something, the other girls in turn add in their comment. This technique is familiar to me from the Flicka/Ricka/Dicka and Snip/Snap/Snurr series, but I doesn't work as well in this book. Also, Anna shows an interpretive ability that I'm not sure is true for someone her age: after a conversation with Mrs Lacey, who is frowning and looks like she will yell, "Anna knew for sure that she'd just been nervous before. And maybe a little embarrassed about how she'd yelled at them the night of the rescue." And, I would think, concerned about being interrupted about personal matters at work and hoping she wouldn't lose her job. Yet she had no insights when Mike Lacey teases them.
The setting is such a cozy small town, that the local estate owner offers to let the girls camp on her land, provides them with a map of the trails and with a tent & hot dog supper.… (more)