What do you think?
Rate this book
Bonnie #3
Sunbonnet: Filly of the Year
Vintage paperback
- GenresHorsesYoung AdultAnimals
144 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published November 1, 1973
39 people want to read
About the author
Barbara Van Tuyl
11 books5 followersHolding a trainer’s license since 1972, Barbara Van Tuyl had never thought to be a writer when she grew up. Inspired by books like the Black Stallion, her big break came when a friend passed on a fiction piece and gave it to her. Asked to create an outline, she decided to create a second one to show that a series could be viable. From those two outlines came the first two books in what became the Bonnie series: The Sweet Running Filly and A Horse Called Bonnie.
Books one through five were published in the early 70s. Almost 30 years later, Barbara has penned "A Special Kind of Courage", the sixth in the Bonnie series being released in October 2013.
Books one through five were published in the early 70s. Almost 30 years later, Barbara has penned "A Special Kind of Courage", the sixth in the Bonnie series being released in October 2013.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
July 30, 2024
Although there are three more books in the series, the next book is vastly inferior to the initial trilogy, so JUST STOP HERE.
Sunbonnet, or Bonnie, gets retired from racing and bred in this book. There seems to be some strange shenanigans at this highly esteemed Bluegrass stud farm. Bonnie is caught in the middle of it.
This was a very realistic story aimed for adults as well as teens. Unlike 99% of Thoroughbred racing fiction books, the Bonnie series was very close at picturing what the industry was like in the 1970s. The scams depicted by the baddies could very well have happened, because much of the breeding and registering of Thoroughbreds was done on the honor system. You only needed a breeding certificate to "prove" two horses mated.
With the coming of DNA testing, the honor system has been squashed. But that was decades in the future.
When I was a kid, there used to be a very important race called the Matchmaker Stakes, here rechristened the Bridal Stakes. The winning owner not only won the winner's share of the purse, but a free breeding to a certain stallion. Usually the services of three stallions were offered. It's this race that Bonnie wins to get her free date. The Matchmaker Stakes is still ongoing, although I do not know if the free stallion services are still included (they were in 2022.)
If I remember correctly, this is the shortest book in the series. It reads very quickly, with an ending that I was satisfied with. This wound up being my favorite book in the series. I used to have four books in the series, but sold them when I became disgusted with racing in 1999.
The cover is highly inaccurrate, as usual, since Bonnie is a dark bay instead of a bright bay with facial markings.
Sunbonnet, or Bonnie, gets retired from racing and bred in this book. There seems to be some strange shenanigans at this highly esteemed Bluegrass stud farm. Bonnie is caught in the middle of it.
This was a very realistic story aimed for adults as well as teens. Unlike 99% of Thoroughbred racing fiction books, the Bonnie series was very close at picturing what the industry was like in the 1970s. The scams depicted by the baddies could very well have happened, because much of the breeding and registering of Thoroughbreds was done on the honor system. You only needed a breeding certificate to "prove" two horses mated.
With the coming of DNA testing, the honor system has been squashed. But that was decades in the future.
When I was a kid, there used to be a very important race called the Matchmaker Stakes, here rechristened the Bridal Stakes. The winning owner not only won the winner's share of the purse, but a free breeding to a certain stallion. Usually the services of three stallions were offered. It's this race that Bonnie wins to get her free date. The Matchmaker Stakes is still ongoing, although I do not know if the free stallion services are still included (they were in 2022.)
If I remember correctly, this is the shortest book in the series. It reads very quickly, with an ending that I was satisfied with. This wound up being my favorite book in the series. I used to have four books in the series, but sold them when I became disgusted with racing in 1999.
The cover is highly inaccurrate, as usual, since Bonnie is a dark bay instead of a bright bay with facial markings.
August 9, 2021
Tumble down memory lane with another of my 48 year old books. Reminds me of what I like when reading. Horsey folks, a mystery and more. Nice to read. If you can find them, read them.
December 27, 2015
The Bonnie books just get better and better. Each is written with a prologue that will refresh your memory if you've read previous books or bring you up to speed if you have not. Each book comes with a new mystery surrounding the ever eventful lives and racing career of Sunbonnet and her loving owner Julie Jefferson. And each book brings forward all our beloved characters while introducing new ones - some we'll love, and some we'll love to hate.
Bonnie faces the biggest challenges of her life in Sunbonnet: Filly of the Year, and Julie must remain level-headed enough to see her through them. With her uncanny ability to ferret out the truth, Julie launches herself on all new adventures. These are YA books written in the 70's, but they are fun for all ages and still relevant today.
Bonnie faces the biggest challenges of her life in Sunbonnet: Filly of the Year, and Julie must remain level-headed enough to see her through them. With her uncanny ability to ferret out the truth, Julie launches herself on all new adventures. These are YA books written in the 70's, but they are fun for all ages and still relevant today.
October 13, 2019
This is the first book in the series not co-written with Pat Johnson, and I now wonder if Johnson was the racing person of the duo (or, at the least, the one with the research skills). I still enjoy the series but it gets less plausible with each succeeding. Then again, I was a young child when the books were published and perhaps some of the things I find hard to buy were actually true about racing in the 1970's. But they're quick and enjoyable reads and after reading the first two (as birthday books given to me this year), I decided to go ahead and read the final three books in the series. (I don't acknowledge Book 6, which seems to have gone through no editing whatsoever before being self-published. It's crap.)
June 15, 2014
I read A Sweet Running Filly and A Horse Called Bonnie when I was a girl and they were amongst my favorites. I was thrilled to find 3 new sequels. I didn't think this one was as good as the original two but I still enjoyed reading about Julie and Bonnie.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews