Review: Janet Rising, Pony Rebellion and Stables S.O.S.

-
Janet Rising - Pony Rebellion
Janet Rising - Stables S.O.S.
Hodder Children’s Books, £5.99

Janet Rising on Hodder
My interview with Janet Rising

Thanks to Janet Rising for sending me Pony Rebellion.  Stables S.O.S. I bought myself from a real, live shop.


Pony Rebellion, book 5 in the series, sees Pia and her friends putting together a musical activity ride in aid of Riding for the Disabled.  This involves practice.  Lots and lots of practice.  Unfortunately the ponies get very fed up with all this practice; so much so that they go on strike.  Nothing Pia tries, despite her ability to talk to the ponies, will make any difference to the ponies’ decision. 




Besides this, there’s Pia’s ongoing crush on James to contend with, as well as her rivalry with Cat.  One of the series’ ongoing loose ends is tied up in this book.  Having hung on for four, and jolly nearly five books to find out what dread secret it was Cat was harbouring, I was slightly puzzled by what the secret turned out to be:  much of the dramatic tension arises because Pia’s friends won’t tell her what the secret is, though they all know.  Once I knew what it was (not going to issue spoilers, so read on in peace) I couldn’t quite see why they wouldn’t tell her.  Maybe that’s just me not understanding the sometimes opaque workings of the teenage girl’s mind.  My daughter would say it was definitely a case of that, no question.  It’s a minor quibble though; the book’s the same excellent read the others were.   There's very little in the pony book field which has ponies working to rule, unless you count C Northcote Parkinson's Ponies Plot, and I enjoyed the agony of seeing Pia completely fail to work out what was plain blooming obvious to any sensible adult (ie me). 

It’s one of the great truisms of pony book stables that sooner or later they will all be threatened with Destruction; whether that’s the threat from a rival riding stable (even Ruby Ferguson’s Mrs Darcy had a minor wobble when the Drafters set up shop nearby) or the stables being covered over by a soul-less housing development, with the developer laughing all the way to the bank.

Alas you have only to look at the fate of so many riding schools over the years to know that many of them have now been concreted over:  nearly all of the riding schools in Central London are no more, the siren song of immense London property values having ensured their demise.




The last in the Pony Whisperer series, Stables S.O.S., sees the livery stables threatened by owner Mrs Collins’ dastardly son, who takes full and horrible advantage of his mother’s hospitalisation to attempt to sell the stables and the land for development.  Pia and her friends hope that they can stop him by proving the stables is a site of historical interest to the nation.  Alas, there is no actual building left, only the ruins the ponies can sense under their field, so they have a fight on their hands.

The book, the last in the series, is full of the things that made the rest of the series work:  although Pia can hear what the ponies are saying when she has her statue of Epona, that doesn't mean she actually listens.  The adults are as wonderfully drawn as they were in the other books: Pia’s parents are just as dim.  Her father remains sublimely unaware of what his daughter’s actually thinking.  He and his new partner plan to buy the stables once they’re converted, pleased it will bring them closer to Pia.  Pia learns that matchmaking your mother is not really a good idea, but her own proto-romance with James edges a little closer.  I like the way this is dealt with:  the romance just trickles along at the edges of the story, so it’s comfortable for girls who are happier with the idea of loving their pony than a boy, but there’s enough for the girl who’s widening her horizons. 

And so the Pony Whisperer series ends; I think in a satisfying place.  I can imagine Pia and James sort of riding into the distance, though I suspect Drummer would very soon put paid to any smooching.  Pia’s father and Skinny Lynnie will carry on not quite getting it, and Pia I suppose comes to terms with her mother’s romances.  I wonder what Pia will do with herself when she’s older?   Janet Rising is planning more pony books, but Pia I think will live on just in our imaginations.  It's been a great series and I'm looking forward to whatever Janet does next (Twilight with ponies?  Just aching to be done, I'd have thought.)

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Rollkur and the blue tongue

-
I've been meaning to write about this all week, but reading the exclusive in Horse and Hound about the controversy tipped me over the edge. For my non-horsy readers, rollkur is a training/warming up technique used by some dressage riders. It basically involves riding the horse with its jaw pulled in virtually to its chest, in order to increase suppleness. Patrik Kittel , a Swedish competitor in Odense was videoed riding his horse in this way. If you watch the video , you'll see the horse's tongue hanging out - blue. It takes a while before the rider notices this. When he does, he stops, puts the horse's tongue back in, and carries on. There are two things which bother me about this. Firstly, I am fully aware large sections of the dressage world, and some of its brighest stars, consider rollkur perfectly ok, but the FEI guidelines state this practice should only be for short periods, allowing the horse to rest. Patrick Kittel apparently rode the horse for two hou
Read more

Archibald, don't eat the bedclothes

-
Image
My friend Louise sent me this picture today. It's from a children's book with the rather wince-making title For The Wee Ones. I thought, when I read that (because I read the message before I looked at the picture) that the picture was going to be a typical winsome production from the school of artists who think (or who are paid to think) that the child is a thing sent from God and a blissful thing. They had obviously never met a child, and certainly not mine. I should have known Louise better. The artist responsible for Archibald, don't eat the bedclothes slipped this one past the editors. Just look at the poor, broken Mother Rabbit. She knows she has not the faintest chance of being listened to, and poor thing, she is stooped in the way of a mother to whom this is just the lastest in a long line of horror; with nothing good to come. And Archibald is obviously the spawn of the Devil. Just look at those eyes. He'll have the bed after he's finished the bedclothes
Read more

Dick Sparrow - 40 Horse Hitch, and Neil Dimmock's 46 Percherons

-
Image
Here's a clip of Dick Sparrow driving 40 horses. It's an amazing sight, particularly when the shot changes to show the team from the rear and you get the great incongruity of modern American corporate architecture as a background to the wagon and horses. I love the anticipation in the video: the sense of something amazing being just round the corner is palpable. Thanks to Christina Wilsdon for telling me about this world record 46 Percheron hitch (alas just stills) but you get the idea.
Read more