Fox Hunt

Saddle Club #22

by Bonnie Bryant

Tallyho!
The Saddle Club is in for some real excitement when Stevie’s boyfriend, Phil, invites them, along with a few other kids from their Pony Club, to participate in a genuine fox hunt. Stevie, Lisa, and Carole can’t wait for the event to begin—especially when they find out that no harm will come to the fox! But first, to give everyone a chance to learn the ropes, there’s a mock hunt at Pine Hollow Stables. As the most devious of the bunch, Stevie is chosen to play the fox. Yet on the day of the hunt, she’ll discover she isn’t the only one who’s devious . . . when her prank-playing brothers get involved in the chase!

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

144 pages, Paperback

First published December 19, 2012

About the author

American 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

Reviews

[Kelly · Rating 3 out of 5]

The fox hunt was a lot of fun, and this one being a Stevie-centric book involved a lot of hijinks and pranks. There were, however, a lot of characters involved - including Cross County and Phil and his riding instructor, Mr. Baker - and Stevie's three brothers and parents, and the hounds' owner, and a circus elephant, and Veronica, and May, and - whew - yeah. A busy plot, but it all came together at the end.

[Sam Wescott · Rating 4 out of 5]

Man, this was one of my favorites when I was a kid. Usually Stevie-centric books kinda stressed me out (I was a very type A child), but the fox-hunting aspect was just so interesting. And we got to see May, who was in the Pony Tails series! Very fun.

[Veronikaz · Rating 1 out of 5]

Mohla jsem dát 2*, protože žádné lišce nebylo ublíženo, ale pak se objevil cirkus a to teda už ne.

[Anna · Rating 2 out of 5]

I do not understand why I used to be so obsessed with these books. The author spends way more time making the characters explain things than actually getting them to do anything. The writing is simple, which is understandable, so I'll let that go for now. The plot was funny in a weird-MG-novel way. Still not sure what the elephant was even doing outside of a zoo and/or Africa, but whatever.

Also why does an immature, annoying middle schooler have a fairly serious boyfriend and I do not???? @God explain!!

[Rena Sherwood · Rating 1 out of 5]

Wow -- this book did not age well since the first time I read it in the 1990s.

The amount of animal abuse going on here is appalling. In one book, we have:

* frog dissection for class
* fox hunting -- mock and real
* a bull elephant in a travelling circus.

Jeez.

Zus.

CHROYST.

I think this book was written by Bonnie Bryant, since nobody received special thanks in her dedication page. In fact, this book isn't dedicated to anyone, which is just as well. Anyone with a conscience would be sickened to have a book like this dedicated to them.

This is mostly a book about a stupid feud between Stevie and her brothers. It actually has very little to do with fox hunting in America. Although Bryant stresses repeatedly in this book that no one would really kill foxes on a fox hunt, that's bullshit. Fox hunting is all about killing foxes. That's kind of why it's called fox HUNTING. As in, the pack of hounds come in and tear the fox to pieces. Or, the fox dies from exhaustion or injury during the chase.

Bryant also says there are fewer foxes in America than in England. That is also not true BECAUSE AMERICA IS ABOUT A HUNDRED TIMES LARGER THAN THE WHOLE UK.

It never ceases to amaze me the shit that gets published.

And then there are the inconsistencies. Garnet suddenly becomes a "he" again. There's suddenly a bait shop practically next door to the ice cream parlor. You think something that might have been mentioned, especially during the books set in the summer. Stevie is described as never admitting when she's wrong ... even though she's done so repeatedly throughout the previous books in the series.

[Stefanie Robinson · Rating 3 out of 5]

In this book, the Saddle Club was invited to another riding stable to participate in a fox hunt. Fox hunts are a staple, especially in British aristocracy, and many riders who train at English riding stables participate in mock fox hunts. This was meant to be a genuine fox hunt, though without the culling of the fox at the end. To prepare, Pine Hollow put on an educational event, in which Stevie was the mock fox. Her brothers decided to join in and cause chaos. This was a fun book.

[Jemma:) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Book was really exciting

[Sue Ann · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love it
love all horse stories,
definitely an awesome series of books

[Hazel · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good series for horse crazy young teens. I loved it when I was younger.

[Jasmína Rokosová · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book again

[Jen Pritchard · Rating 4 out of 5]

This one is one of my favourites. Stevie is so fun!