Amy's Journal

Heartland Special Edition

by Lauren Brooke

Amy describes how she learned healing techniques from her mother, and includes hints and tips for horse-lovers. Learn how to read a horse's character from his face by looking at the diagrams of the Heartland horses, find out which alternative remedies could help your horse, and get the low-down on Amy's favourite horsey books.

Genres: Horses, Childrens, Young Adult, Animals, Fiction, Middle Grade

144 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2006

About the author

Lauren Brooke grew up in a ranch in Virginia and now lives in Leicestershire, England. Her husband is a veterinarian who specializes in horses. Her books have been published by Scholastic since Mid-2000, starting with the first book of the Heartland book series. The first book of her popular Chestnut Hill series was published in 2005.

According to an interview on scholastics' website, Lauren Brooke has been riding since before she could walk. She also said she competes in a few local-level horse shows and events.

There may be some other people in books and movies named Lauren Brooke:
Amazon lists the author of "Book of spiritual regeneration" (1995) as Lauren Brooke.
IMDB.com has a record for an Actress named Lauren Brooke. Her only movie is "Wiseguys vs. Zombies" (2003) as Goat Man's Wife.

Reviews

[Amanda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Love this series! I love that Lauren Brooke came back to the series and provided a 'behind the scenes' look at how things are done on the farm. She explains how some of the techniques are done and gives a reference list of books for people to read if they want more information about how to use the methods of Heartland.

A fitting 'epilogue' for the series.

[Leah]

LOved it, it was great . if you have a horse or horse crazy like me than you will love this book !!!! :)

[Tibbara's Den · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this. It was so hard to get ahold of, and I definitely had to pay more for it than I should have, but I am so glad I have this book. I loved getting a look behind the therapies used at Heartland, along with some back stories. I really enjoyed the newspaper articles (though I would have loved it even more if they had been formated as such) and loved that some recipes were included. I especially loved getting a more detailed explanation of Heartland's layout with the drawing to help.

[Stefan Oostra]

Per toeval ben ik dit boek tegengekomen bij een kringloop winkel. Mijn vriendin heeft de hele serie gelezen en raadde mij die aan. In eerste instantie was ik een beetje sceptisch, omdat ik in het fantasy genre zit. Maar omdat ik eigenlijk weleens wat afwisseling wilde, besloot ik die te kopen en te gaan lezen.
Wat een goede keuze bleek te zijn geweest! Het boek is op een frisse en toegankelijke manier in elkaar gezet. Zelfs als je de serie niet gelezen hebt is het goed te volgen en rol je er zo in. De toon van het boek is leuk en makkelijk leesbaar en goed geschreven vanuit een ik vorm.
Maar het leuke zijn alle paarden feitjes. Er worden een aantal technieken beschreven die gebruikt worden door mensen die met paarden werken. Zelfs voor mensen die niet in deze wereld bekend zijn is het goed te volgen en leuk om te lezen. Een aanrader voor mensen die eens een paarden boek willen proberen!

[Kelly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ending my reread of the series with this tie-in, unfortunately with the new cover rather than the original but that's more of an aesthetic thing than anything else.

Though it's in first person, it's still Amy's 'voice' and I love reading about some things from her past, ie, how she bought Sundance. It was lovely seeing more of Marion and her in action/how much of an influence he was in Amy's early life. My favourite parts have to be the info on Back Flower Remedies, other alternate therapies used at Heartland, and the family recipes (really not a section to be read when hungry!). :)

This is definitely a great addition/ending to the main series; I just wish it was a bit longer.

[Stefanie Robinson · Rating 3 out of 5]

In this book, we learn more about Amy. We learn about her relationship with her dead mother, and how her mother helped teach her the ways of horsemanship and healing. She also gives more details about other characters, her interests, and how the farm works. It was a pretty good extra book for this series. Heartland fans will probably like it.

[Chloe · Rating 1 out of 5]

I love Lauren Brooke books however trying to get a hold of Amy’s Journal is impossible. You cannot read it from goodreads and even when you search for the books it’s over £60 to buy....how ridiculous.

[David Burnworth · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a book on everything from the series.
If you have read the series then you will thoroughly enjoy all of the tiny details this book brings to you.
It has recipes, what certain herbs does for the horses and for humans and so much more.

[Enza · Rating 2 out of 5]

extremement intéressant mais ennuyant à lire

[Lilly]

awsome

[livresetsonges · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ce livre n’a pas grand intérêt pour l’avancée de l’histoire mais il permet d’en découvrir sur le avant Heartland. C’était très sympa à lire.

[Kara · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked how informative this was. It felt like an inside look behind the series.

[Alex Apostol · Rating 5 out of 5]

This wasn't the typical Heartland book but it was cool reading more about Amy's past and also getting a deeper look at the holistic practices of Heartland.

[AmbWitch · Rating 2 out of 5]

I absolutely adored the Heartland series as a child. Then a number of years ago I reread the series for nostalgia reasons, and are now reviewing it (I am that behind on reviews). I remember child me being particularly excited to read Amy’s Journal as it included information around the work the characters do. I was a little disappointed with it, but did still really enjoy it. It is definitely a quick read, both for me as an adult and me as a child. As a child I read it in a day, as an adult it took me around an hour and a half. It is a nice little addition to the series, but is not part of the main story. Please note my star rating is for adult me, not child me.

I’m not sure how accurate the information is in this book. When it spoke about reading a horse’s character from their facial features, I couldn’t help but think about phrenology, the theory that a person’s character can be read from the bumps and dents in someone’s skull. Scientific research strongly suggests this theory is incorrect, but when it comes to what is discussed in this book, I have no idea. I also have very little knowledge around alternative remedies and their effects on horses. I feel that readers should exercise caution if they want to try anything from this book with their own pets, and to seek professional advice and parental supervision. What was good here, was that this series also shows you the importance of vets and the character’s alternative methods are always used alongside conventional ones. There are no occasions when they ignore vets medical advice. I do have a little more knowledge around join-up, and know that there is evidence of its effectiveness. It is written in this book in a way that can be easily understood by young readers, but I must stress that they don’t try to replicate it without supervision, especially the younger ones.

The newspaper cuttings were interesting, as they gave us insight into Lou and her past, which we did not see in the main series. We were able to see how much she used to love riding, and how strong her relationship with her dad was. In the main series, she barely rides, and does not have a relationship with her dad (spoiler for series to follow) until later in the series. We also got to see where Sundance came from, and Amy’s relationship with her mum.

Horse obsessed young me loved this series. I thought I’d read all the books, but as I was reading this discovered that there are some specials that I had not read. I was rereading these books for nostalgia sake, then sending them off to charity, but the completionist in me wants to read the ones I missed when I was younger. We shall see what happens.

[Amanda Schell · Rating 5 out of 5]

I adore the heartland series!!! All of them! And in case you were wondering the TV series is pretty good too <3

[Monique · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book was a waste of money and time.