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Saddle Club Super Edition #4
Dream Horse
Recovering from a head injury in the hospital, Stevie Lake has a series of vivid dreams that surprisingly comes true and makes the Saddle Club friends wonder if Stevie has developed psychic powers.
208 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1996
3 people are currently reading
113 people want to read
About the author
Bonnie Bryant
384 books200 followersAmerican author of children's books. She is best known for creating the intermediate horse book series The Saddle Club, which was published from October 1988 until April 2001. The Saddle Club chronicled the adventures of thirteen-year-old Lisa Atwood and twelve-year-olds Stephanie "Stevie" Lake and Carole Hanson. The series was static in time; the girls never aged in 101 books, 7 special editions, and 3 Inside Stories.
Bonnie Bryant also wrote two spin-off series: Pony Tails, aimed at beginning readers, and Pine Hollow, aimed at teenage readers. The 16 Pony Tails books followed the lives of eight-year-olds May Grover, Corey Takamura, and Jasmine James. Pine Hollow featured Carole, Lisa, Stevie, and their new friends in a series set four years after The Saddle Club. Unlike The Saddle Club, Pine Hollow conformed to a realistic timeline. The 17 books took place over the span of less than a year. Later a television show called The Saddle Club, based on the books, was filmed in Australia.
Bonnie Bryant wrote at least 38 The Saddle Club books and 2 Pine Hollow books herself; after that they were taken over by a team of ghostwriters, a common practice in long-running children's book series. Ghostwriters for the Saddle Club and Pine Hollow books included Caitlin Macy (sometimes credited as Caitlin C. Macy), Catherine Hapka, Sallie Bissell, Kimberly Brubaker Bradley, Helen Geraghty, Tina deVaron, Cat Johnston, Minna Jung, and Sheila Prescott-Vessey.
Bonnie Bryant is also the author of many novelizations of movies, including Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, The Karate Kid, and Honey, I Blew Up the Kid, written under her married name, B.B. Hiller. She also collaborated in the ghostwriting of The Baby-sitters Club Super Special #14: BSC in the USA, published under the name of its creator, Ann M. Martin.
Bonnie Bryant was born and raised in New York City. She met her husband, Neil W. Hiller, in college, where they both worked on the campus newspaper. They had two sons, Emmons Hiller and Andrew Hiller. Neil Hiller died in 1989. Many of Bonnie's books are dedicated to him.
***from wikipedia.org
Bonnie Bryant also wrote two spin-off series: Pony Tails, aimed at beginning readers, and Pine Hollow, aimed at teenage readers. The 16 Pony Tails books followed the lives of eight-year-olds May Grover, Corey Takamura, and Jasmine James. Pine Hollow featured Carole, Lisa, Stevie, and their new friends in a series set four years after The Saddle Club. Unlike The Saddle Club, Pine Hollow conformed to a realistic timeline. The 17 books took place over the span of less than a year. Later a television show called The Saddle Club, based on the books, was filmed in Australia.
Bonnie Bryant wrote at least 38 The Saddle Club books and 2 Pine Hollow books herself; after that they were taken over by a team of ghostwriters, a common practice in long-running children's book series. Ghostwriters for the Saddle Club and Pine Hollow books included Caitlin Macy (sometimes credited as Caitlin C. Macy), Catherine Hapka, Sallie Bissell, Kimberly Brubaker Bradley, Helen Geraghty, Tina deVaron, Cat Johnston, Minna Jung, and Sheila Prescott-Vessey.
Bonnie Bryant is also the author of many novelizations of movies, including Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, The Karate Kid, and Honey, I Blew Up the Kid, written under her married name, B.B. Hiller. She also collaborated in the ghostwriting of The Baby-sitters Club Super Special #14: BSC in the USA, published under the name of its creator, Ann M. Martin.
Bonnie Bryant was born and raised in New York City. She met her husband, Neil W. Hiller, in college, where they both worked on the campus newspaper. They had two sons, Emmons Hiller and Andrew Hiller. Neil Hiller died in 1989. Many of Bonnie's books are dedicated to him.
***from wikipedia.org
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
June 20, 2017
ilove chpter book
June 17, 2023
I was never much of a horse girl, but I was a book girl. I read myself through huge swathes of the library. Some of those books are more or less imprinted on my memory...and some take longer to recall.
Dream Horse is in the latter category: I remembered, hazily, a scene involving an ill (quite possibly dying) girl who was unable to eat her favourite disgusting ice cream concoctions. That's not a lot to go on, but after years of trying(!), a Goodreads group found it for me.
As it turns out, I had the ice-cream scene partially but not entirely correct:
One of the things about Stevie that seemed an eternal mystery to her friends was what constituted her "favorite" ice cream sundaes. Ghastly was one word her friends sometimes used to describe them. Revolting was another word they'd used from time to time. Inventive was what Stevie called them.
A few minutes later they ordered butter pecan ice cream with licorice bits and caramel sauce to go and pooled every cent they had on them to pay for it.
"Oh, and some chopped peanuts and marshmallow fluff," Lisa added.
Carole winced. That was how she knew they'd gotten a really good combination. If it made her stomach twinge just to hear the ingredients, it was guaranteed to please Stevie. (32)
As it turns out, Stevie isn't dying (not a spoiler—just bad memory!), though her concussive effects are severe enough to induce something of a personality transplant and possibly psychic powers, which does make one wonder just how much the doctors missed. And there are two other plotlines that I remembered clearly. In one, two girls go 'undercover' to help an adult figure out if a horse trader is corrupt:
"Oh, Mommy! Mommy! Look at the horsie!" Lisa said.
"Too young," said Deborah.
"Wow, Mom! Look at all the horses! Lisa tried a second time."
"Much better," said Deborah. She pulled the car to a stop at the barn and opened the door. (47)
In another, the snooty rich girl enters a photo contest and enlists the use of a private plane to get up-close photos of the sky. The second photograph was of sky and clouds. It was pretty, but it didn't seem very special until Lisa realized that it was taken very close to the clouds (95). If you'd asked me before this re-read, I could have told you about those scenes but would have said that they came from completely different books.
None of these is the main plot, though—in the main plot, Stevie is suffering the effects of a concussion; in a secondary plot, a friend goes missing while out on a glider flight. It's all nicely wrapped together...but it is perhaps worth noting that there is some terrible precedent here. If you have a concussion, . If you are lost on a mountain, you are safe for the time being, and there is good reason to think that people will be looking for you soon, do not go wandering away from your position without food or water or survival gear. (If you are out on a small-craft flight, submit a flight plan.) If you are twelve and think you know up what impassable-but-not-actually-impassable trail your missing friend can be found, alert authorities. Do not go mavericking your way up a mountain .
I'm not sorry that I didn't read more Saddle Club books as a kid (I was more into Marguerite Henry), but it was a ride(!) to revisit this one.
Dream Horse is in the latter category: I remembered, hazily, a scene involving an ill (quite possibly dying) girl who was unable to eat her favourite disgusting ice cream concoctions. That's not a lot to go on, but after years of trying(!), a Goodreads group found it for me.
As it turns out, I had the ice-cream scene partially but not entirely correct:
One of the things about Stevie that seemed an eternal mystery to her friends was what constituted her "favorite" ice cream sundaes. Ghastly was one word her friends sometimes used to describe them. Revolting was another word they'd used from time to time. Inventive was what Stevie called them.
A few minutes later they ordered butter pecan ice cream with licorice bits and caramel sauce to go and pooled every cent they had on them to pay for it.
"Oh, and some chopped peanuts and marshmallow fluff," Lisa added.
Carole winced. That was how she knew they'd gotten a really good combination. If it made her stomach twinge just to hear the ingredients, it was guaranteed to please Stevie. (32)
As it turns out, Stevie isn't dying (not a spoiler—just bad memory!), though her concussive effects are severe enough to induce something of a personality transplant and possibly psychic powers, which does make one wonder just how much the doctors missed. And there are two other plotlines that I remembered clearly. In one, two girls go 'undercover' to help an adult figure out if a horse trader is corrupt:
"Oh, Mommy! Mommy! Look at the horsie!" Lisa said.
"Too young," said Deborah.
"Wow, Mom! Look at all the horses! Lisa tried a second time."
"Much better," said Deborah. She pulled the car to a stop at the barn and opened the door. (47)
In another, the snooty rich girl enters a photo contest and enlists the use of a private plane to get up-close photos of the sky. The second photograph was of sky and clouds. It was pretty, but it didn't seem very special until Lisa realized that it was taken very close to the clouds (95). If you'd asked me before this re-read, I could have told you about those scenes but would have said that they came from completely different books.
None of these is the main plot, though—in the main plot, Stevie is suffering the effects of a concussion; in a secondary plot, a friend goes missing while out on a glider flight. It's all nicely wrapped together...but it is perhaps worth noting that there is some terrible precedent here. If you have a concussion, . If you are lost on a mountain, you are safe for the time being, and there is good reason to think that people will be looking for you soon, do not go wandering away from your position without food or water or survival gear. (If you are out on a small-craft flight, submit a flight plan.) If you are twelve and think you know up what impassable-but-not-actually-impassable trail your missing friend can be found, alert authorities. Do not go mavericking your way up a mountain .
I'm not sorry that I didn't read more Saddle Club books as a kid (I was more into Marguerite Henry), but it was a ride(!) to revisit this one.
January 5, 2015
I really how this book was put together. It left a few unanswered questions but it definitely was a fun quick read. It reminded me of a Saddle Club episode I watched but it was a unique spin to it.
Stevie has a concussion which causes her to act weird. She misses a few adventures with the Saddle Club but it feels like she is there with them.
I don't care how old I get, these books will always be enjoyable.
Stevie has a concussion which causes her to act weird. She misses a few adventures with the Saddle Club but it feels like she is there with them.
I don't care how old I get, these books will always be enjoyable.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews