Summer Pony (A Stepping Stone Book(TM))

*possible spoilers*

Okay... This is an okay book, for what it is. Cliched and short... It seems like most of the "girl gets her 1st horse/pony" books include the horse getting sick and/or hurt. I've read so many with that plot device that it's awfully cliched by now.

My very first reaction to this

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book was concern and surprise. If the poor pony is so sick and weak, even falling when getting out of the trailer, why on earth would Ginny ride her before getting her better? It seems that if a pony is that skinny and weak that it can barely stand, it's really bad horsecare to ride the poor thing!

I know this is a short children's book, but one of the first rules I learned about writing was "show, don't tell". And we get a LOT of telling in this book. We are told how Mokey's legs healed "two weeks later", but not shown how Ginny nursed her pony or helped with the legs. And the books tells that Ginny learned how to braid Mokey's mane and ready her for the show ring, but where were all the wonderful experiences in there? Why weren't we shown how they connected, how she learned to fix up her pony, *how* this all happened? I think it really takes away from a stable plot, when the author just "tells" everything.

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