Cowboy Colt

Backyard Horses #2

by Dandi Daley Mackall

Fourth-grader Ellie James and her horse, Dream, are best friends forever. But when her human best friend, Colt, starts acting strange, Ellie determines to fix his problem. She tries to find the perfect horse for Colt. But how? Ellie’s brother is struggling to stay on his baseball team, her father is fighting to hold onto his job at the Jingle Bells Ad Agency, and her mother is volunteering at the cat farm and the worm ranch . . . so, Ellie is on her own. Or is she . . . ? Join Ellie and Colt in their exciting, horse-loving adventures.

Genres: Horses, Childrens

160 pages, Paperback

First published August 17, 2011

About the author

A professional writer for over 20 years, Dandi Daley Mackall has written dozens of articles for popular magazines and published around 500 books for children and adults alike, with sales of over 4 million.

A frequent guest on radio and television talk shows, she lives in rural Ohio with her husband, three children, horses, dogs, & cats. Awards include the Edgar Award for Best YA Mystery, the Helen Keating Ott Award for Contributions to Children's Literature; Distinguished Alumni Award from Mizzou; ALA Best Book; Christian Children's Book of the Year, Amelia Bloom, Mom's Choice Awards. Her YA novel, My Boyfriends' Dogs, is now a Hallmark movie.

Reviews

[Becca Avila · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty good book.

One thing that I don’t like about Colt’s parents become divorced but it is who this world is now becoming. Walking away from God and His word.

One thing that I would want the author to add in would be more romance, I know Ellie and Colt are young to have a crush on people but I sort of did when I was in 4th grade.

Another thing is that Ellie and the other characters sort of act and seem old than they really are. I think they would be better as a middle schooler. Same thing with Ethan, but it is cool that Ms. Mackall did make him deaf.

Also the typing is very large, I finished the book within the hour. Of course I am a VERY fast reader so yeah.

Another thing is that this series doesn’t have as much things about faith and God as that Winnie series has. But that okay, it still would be nice to have a little more things about faith.

But over all this was a great book. I would recommend to 3rd-5th grade students, but I am in 7th grade so it was a little too young for me, but that is fine.

- Becca

[Lis K · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the second book in this series. It can be read as a standalone but I think kids will enjoy it more after having read book 1. I love how the author writes the character of Ellie. She is so sweet but she is also real. She gets angry, upset, frustrated when bad things happen...like when her friend Colt starts treating her poorly or her brother is treated unfairly because he's deaf. I also like how she just talks to God normally, like she would to a friend. I think she's a good role model for young readers. The humor is still there, especially with her interesting parents, but this book felt a little deeper because of the fracturing friendship between Ellie and Colt. I highly recommend this series, I think kids will really enjoy it!

[Victoria · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ellie thought she was best friends with colt, but when he starts to act strange she wonders about their friendship.

[ReggieFromTheLake]

Okay.
I have no idea how this author writes such good books.
-Kaya

[Gracie Schlabach · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good sequel to book one, this one is about what it means to be a good friend vs a bad one.