Full Gallop

Pine Hollow #17

by Bonnie Bryant

From endings to new beginnings.

Carole Hanson's work with a problem horse is really paying off, and with Pine Hollow expanding, her future's set -- isn't it? Stevie Lake is stretching herself to the limit, but so far she's making it all work -- isn't she? Callie Forester has confronted her fears; problem solved -- right? Lisa Atwood's falling for a gorgeous guy who feels the same -- doesn't he?

One night changes all the questions -- but the new answers aren't any easier to find.

Genres: Horses, Young Adult, Childrens, Animals

256 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published April 10, 2001

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

[Dark-Draco · Rating 4 out of 5]

I couldn't stop crying as I got to the end of this book! Horrible, horrible ending. I hope that there is another book after this and that the author doesn't end Pine Hollow like that for good - why would you want to? And why do people have the wish to write something like that. I was genuinely upset - I know, pathetic for a 29 year old reading a children's book, but I grew up with these characters!!

[Sara · Rating 4 out of 5]

Can't believe this is how one of my favorite series ended. Wish we could have found out more.

[Rachel Eovacious · Rating 5 out of 5]

NOOOOOOOO! This cannot be the last of Pine Hollow. With a jaw dropping, mind boggling ending, that MADE ME CRY, I can say Bonnie has done a wonderful job of creating three characters, many horses, and so much love. I have grown up with this series. God, there better be another book. I fell in love with all of the characters. They're a small part of me. I can't believe how amazing this book is!

[Caprice Rose · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant ending, it made me cry. The fact that even though everything just happened, it ends with the three of them alone together was a smart move. I loved that. However, there were hundreds of books revolving around Pine Hollow Stables, just for it to burn down.
It also leaves a lot of questions unanswered. What happens between Ben and Carole? Or Lisa and Scott, since we just entered both of their relationships?
Overall, I really liked the ending, it was a good goodbye to the books I spent my entire childhood obsessed over.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Have been with this series for all 118 books, finally finished it after 10+ years.

Clearly a big finale with all 7 main characters. I can’t believe author Bonnie Bryant destroyed something she spent tens of thousands of pages building…

I don’t think it was a bad ending. But what I would do to just have one more book talking about the aftermath some years later…

Goodbye to the closest characters I’ve ever gotten to know.

[Stephanie · Rating 2 out of 5]

And THIS is how it ends? The disaster was foreshadowed (and subverted) for so long in previous books that I knew it was coming. The entire "Pine Hollow" series suffered from cliffhanger endings, and I guess it was too much to hope that the final book would have a proper wrap-up. (I suppose when the author was writing she didn't know for sure if this would be the last one.) There wasn't any attitude of "grief, but then find a way to move on" that you'd expect from a story (and hope you could live up to in real life).

[Samantha · Rating 4 out of 5]

Am extremely disappointed by the ending, I thought there should have been so much more that should have been said. Very sad and hope for another book to finish it off properly.

[Stef Rozitis · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was expecting a book that centred horses and female friendship. I knew some of them would have boyfriends (and fair enough) but I was not prepared for the extent to which boys were at the absolute centre of this story to the point where one of the main character's stories seemed to be that they's all worried that she'd cared about horses too much to ever couple up but it was all good now because a horse-crazy boy had come into the picture to turn her head. So...it's compulsory heterosexuality- very sanitised and idealised, they are all caught up in "dating" and that's portrayed as natural and necessary with a wedding mentioned but the reality of future-as-wives hidden. I just don't think that unbalanced view is good for kids.

There were some mildly interesting scenes with horses, some story arcs that began and never really went anywhere (anything not centring the three couples). There's a bratty kid, a difficult colleague, a school bully but nothing happens with any of them. School work is mentioned now and then as something they are bad at, or at one point as something that can be laid aside for dating which of course is more important. The "crisis" of that relationship is entiely manufactured and bland. I'd rather have seen more trail rides and stuff with horses.

There is a crisis toward the end which I thought was going to link in with either the brat or the smoking colleague but no...there is no cause it's just something difficult and horrible that happens. Then there is a lack of an ending after that we are just left with....that. I was ok from the perspective that I only read this (final) book not the whole series and that the characters failed to grab me but what a peculiar thing to do to loyal readers?

Basically...I understand. This is a TV show turned into a series of books so the going nowhere aspect of it makes sense. I just found it a bit like eating cardboard. Nice, pretty cardboard but there was nothing of substance in it. I suspect someone will be tempted to tell me it's a kids series but I actually think something this low quality is worse for kids than it is for adults.

[Stefanie Robinson · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book marks the ending of The Saddle Club girls and the Pine Hollow series. I am SO DISAPPOINTED in this book. This was no a proper goodbye to the girls at all. Aside from the inconsistency of the characters pasts and how they would interact with Max, the stable owner, the ending of this book was garbage. It was lazy. It was cliche. It was a big disappointment.

[Alisha Brook · Rating 4 out of 5]

Title: Full Gallop
Series: Pine Hollow (#17)
Author: Bonnie Bryant
Genre: Teen Fiction
Rating: 3 stars

FULL GALLOP is a brilliant book, apart of a brilliant series by a brilliant writer.

I like the fact that readers can grow and mature along with the characters of the Saddle Club in the new series named Pine Hollow.

This is the first in the Pine Hollow books that I've read - I know, who doesn't start at the beginning?! - but I enjoyed it nevertheless. It's great to see the girls growing up and having more mature problems to deal with, but also remaining friends and horse-obsessed.

[Zaza (Mackenzie) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Everything seems to becoming together for the girls of PIne Hollow. One night couldn't change EVERYTHING? Could it?

[Sylvie · Rating 4 out of 5]

ummm I can't believe this is how they ended the series