Katy's Pony Summer

Katy's Ponies #5

by Victoria Eveleigh

It's summertime at Barton Farm in Victoria Eveleigh's latest Exmoor Pony adventure.

Katy is looking forward to a carefree summer on the farm, riding and having fun with her best friend, Alice. But all that changes when an injured foal leads to a mystery that no one can solve.

It's up to Katy and her friends to discover exactly what's going on.

The latest adventure in Victoria Eveleigh's Exmoor Pony series. Perfect for fans of animal stories, Michael Morpurgo and Lauren St John.

179 pages, Kindle Edition

First published May 5, 2016

About the author

I was brought up in London, but I always longed to live in the country and have lots of animals - especially horses. Well, dreams do come true because I now live on an Exmoor livestock farm with my husband, Chris. Besides dogs, cats and riding horses, we keep Exmoor Horn sheep, North Devon cattle and Exmoor ponies.
Our daughter, Sarah, is now grown up, but when she was a girl she had an Exmoor pony called Tinkerbell. Their eventful partnership inspired me to write my first stories: a trilogy about a girl and an Exmoor pony growing up together on an Exmoor hill farm. The 'Katy's Exmoor' trilogy was illustrated by Chris, and we self-published it under the imprint Tortoise Publishing. We also published a book called Midnight on Lundy.
Publishing my own books was hard work, so I was delighted when Orion Children's Books took me on in 2011. The 'Katy's Ponnies Trilogy' has now been re-written and updated with expert editorial guidance, and it was published by Orion in 2012 as 'Katy's Wild Foal', 'Katy's Champion Pony' and 'Katy's Pony Surprise'. The books have a great deal of new content, including author's notes, new inside illustrations by Chris and beautiful cover illustrations by Angelo Rinaldi. 'Midnight on Lundy' was also republished, as 'A Stallion Called Midnight'.
I have just written three brand new books for Orion: 'Joe and the Hidden Horseshoe', 'Joe and the Lightning Pony' and 'Joe and the Race to Rescue'. Horses and ponies are still at the heart of these stories, and although a boy is the main character the stories haven't been written specifically for boys. I'm a firm believer that stories with horses and ponies in them shouldn't be exclusively for pony-mad girls!
My books are full of the things I love: horses and ponies, the countryside, farming and people. My Facebook Page is Victoria Eveleigh Author. Please 'Like' it and take a look. I post lots of interesting things about horses and books there, as well as news about my books and our animals here on the farm.
I really like hearing from readers, visiting schools and giving talks, so do get in touch!

Reviews

[Brenda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Katy and her best friend Alice were enjoying the summer holidays, spending time with the Exmoor ponies, both tamed and wild. When she found a new foal caught in fence wire, the struggle to release him turned to a desperate wish by Katy to save his life. Adam, the vet, said his leg might be irreparably damaged, but Katy was determined. Another friend, James, who was autistic and helped care for the horses, suggested Simba for the pony's name, so Simba he was. Katy and Alice discovered damaged fencing and hedges on the farm, which was suspicious. But when they rode to another farm, during a few days camping, their suspicions were once more aroused and the police were notified. What was happening around the area to cause so much damage to properties?

Katy's Pony Summer is the 5th in the Katy's Ponies series by Victoria Eveleigh and it was enchanting. Middle grade fiction, based on the lives of the Exmoor ponies in England, this story (my first) and the series would delight young tweens, especially "horsy" ones. Recommended.

[KSena · Rating 5 out of 5]

In this last book it's a bit more obvious that Katy and her best friend Alice have grown up during the course of the series. Yes, that was there in the other books too, but it was more clear in this one. Boys have started to be a little interesting, not just horses. And going to parties without parents. Planning summer-vacation with just them and the horses. More independent stuff, you know?

But again, what I enjoyed the most was the descriptions of Exmoor in this last book too. It most be a gorgeous landscape!!! (If wet, according to the books it does seem to rain there a lot...)

In this one a foal gets hurt quite badly, and despite everyone's advice and better judgement Katy decides to help it. There's also a mystery about poachers hunting royal red deers that live on the same moors as the Exmoor ponies does. This mystery comes and goes in between other happenings, but it's never really gone.

Also there's James, the autistic kid that I loved so much from the previous book, and his mother Olivia. Still a joy to read about them.

Katy is a very busy girl on the Bartonfarm with all the horses she takes care of. But she does have an epiphany in this book. She IS an exmoorgirl and a farmgirl. She wouldn't be happy anywhere else. And from what I've read in all these books now? I have to agree.

Katy and her friends and family. And all her horses have been fun to read about together with kiddo. I'll actually miss these books.

[Nayuleska · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another fantastic instalment to this fun pony series! Warning, I'm a Victoria fangirl so am naturally biased towards loving her work. I love having another Katy tale because I always learn more about ponies and farm life. This time I learnt the dangers of poachers, which I'd also read in another book recently (that book was published a few years ago). The best part about Katy is that she makes mistakes. It's uncomfortable watching her do them, but she reminds me so much of myself personality wise that I feel very sorry for her when she gets overconfident. Thanks to the past she mostly knows to ask for help, but actually doing so is much harder, and leads to some embarrassment. Katy worries a lot about what others will think of what she sees as mistakes, but in actuality no one focuses on what she thinks they will.

It was fun seeing James again, and having his autism helps Katy take better care of injured foal by being able to relate to it better. Her youngest pony Tink provides mischief in a way that makes me think of the girl Tink in Susie Day's Pea's Book of series! Thankfully that's a different world so double Tink mayhem doesn't happen, although Katy's Tink helps the injured foal in her own way. Katy matures a bit through the story which is a delight to see. I wonder what the next book will bring!

I received a copy from the author in exchange for an honest review on my blog Nayu's Reading Corner http://nayusreadingcorner.blogspot.co...