What do you think?
Rate this book
Thoroughbred #12
Shining's Orphan
Can Cindy stay at Whitebrook Farm forever?
One night, when Samantha McLean goes to the barn to check her horse, Shining, she gets a big surprise. There's a girl sleeping on the hay between two orphaned foals!
Cindy Blake has run away from her foster home and found her way to Whitebrook Farm. She loves horses, and there isn't any place she'd rather live. Cindy begs Samantha to let her stay.
Cindy turns out to be a natural with horses, and she develops a bond with Shining. She thinks she's found the perfect home at last. But when the authorities find out where she is, they want to send her to another foster home. Can Samantha and her friends at Whitebrook find a way to keep Cindy on the farm for good?
One night, when Samantha McLean goes to the barn to check her horse, Shining, she gets a big surprise. There's a girl sleeping on the hay between two orphaned foals!
Cindy Blake has run away from her foster home and found her way to Whitebrook Farm. She loves horses, and there isn't any place she'd rather live. Cindy begs Samantha to let her stay.
Cindy turns out to be a natural with horses, and she develops a bond with Shining. She thinks she's found the perfect home at last. But when the authorities find out where she is, they want to send her to another foster home. Can Samantha and her friends at Whitebrook find a way to keep Cindy on the farm for good?
192 pages, Paperback
First published February 1, 1995
14 people are currently reading
334 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
Read
April 18, 2024****DNF****
So, I started reading this book last night and the name of a new girl at Tor’s stable popped up and since I’ve read this book before I instantly was like, “hold up! This smells fishy and like a romance drama situation between Samantha and Tor that literally is pointless and causes all kinds of stupid drama we don’t need”, so I flipped through the whole book, and sure enough, that’s what happens. 😒🙄🤦🏼♀️
Ugh, really?
I just can’t take reading stuff like that at this point in my life (not to mention it’s dumb, like COME ON there’s NO way these two are going to break up or start loving other people, good grief), so I quit.
That’s it, that’s the reason, thank you for reading and goodbye. 😆😜
(Since I skimmed no content, sorry! I bet it’s on par with the rest of the series though, so check out one of my other reviews of this series if you’re concerned. ☺️)
So, I started reading this book last night and the name of a new girl at Tor’s stable popped up and since I’ve read this book before I instantly was like, “hold up! This smells fishy and like a romance drama situation between Samantha and Tor that literally is pointless and causes all kinds of stupid drama we don’t need”, so I flipped through the whole book, and sure enough, that’s what happens. 😒🙄🤦🏼♀️
Ugh, really?
I just can’t take reading stuff like that at this point in my life (not to mention it’s dumb, like COME ON there’s NO way these two are going to break up or start loving other people, good grief), so I quit.
That’s it, that’s the reason, thank you for reading and goodbye. 😆😜
(Since I skimmed no content, sorry! I bet it’s on par with the rest of the series though, so check out one of my other reviews of this series if you’re concerned. ☺️)
July 24, 2011
One of the best of this series that I have read. I know that if I were orphaned the first place I would want to go to is a stable.
March 7, 2013
A good book
I did loose the story line a couple of times
I did loose the story line a couple of times
August 17, 2013
It's one of my favorite books so far and it's very well written. Highly reccomended for grades 4-7 (ages 9-13). I love this whole series, but my heart goes out to this book
September 19, 2015
a very emotional thoroughbred this one. the new generation of thoroughbred series begins wiht this book.
April 30, 2015
A great series for tweens that love horses and/or are interested in horseback riding or racing. Teaches about the struggles of working with animals and the benefits.
October 6, 2025
Childhood favourite series (haven't read in a long time) giving all four stars unless it was a favourite as a child.
November 6, 2024
Whenever a main character graduated high school, she got the boot, and a new girl took her place as the series' focus. Time is up for Samantha. This is her last hurrah under original author Joanna Campbell (real name Jo Ann Simon). Samantha would be the focus of three really horrible books later on down the line, but really, this is it.
Enter Cindy, in an overly dramatic way. She does a B & E into Whitebrook Farm. This, of course, would NEVER HAPPEN on a real Kentucky Throughbred stud farm. You have dozens of million dollar horses and ZERO SECURITY?
Not only is this completely implausible, but that NO ONE ON THE FARM IS BOTHERED BY THIS. Instead of acting like normal workers at a Thoroughbred stable, they all immediately worry about Cindy. Samantha's father immediately wants to adopt her.
This complete stranger who BROKE INTO the broodmare barn, potentially jeopardizing the welfare of all the horses. And there are twin foals there.
Back the truck up there. Twins? At a Thoroughbred stud? Since the 1980s, Thoroughbred twins were never allowed to live. One fetus is always killed to ensure the other foal is strong and healthy. This is because twins usually are born small, sickly, and often kill the mare, such as the mare in this book. The twins are also described as being different colors -- dark bay and chestnut. This time, the cover artist actually got it right by making both foals the same color. Twins are usually the SAME color, but have different white markings.
Not that the twins really matter, since we rarely see them again. They vanished (mostly) with Campbell/Simon. But it shows the level of ignorance she had about Thoroughbred breeding and racing.
Quite a lot of this absolutely ridiculous story is about Samantha's family trying to be Cindy's official foster parents. She's taken away by an official that has a bias against horse farms, for an undisclosed reason. I guess Campbell/Simon was desperate to create some level of conflict, even if it had nothing to do with reality. Any Child Protective Service department is so understaffed and overworked that they couldn't have cared less where Cindy was, as long as she was not out on the street.
Samantha's father then suddenly announces that he has one more idea, drives away ... and returns with Cindy.
No explanation is given. We never learn what that great idea was. WHAT A LOAD OF BOLLOCKS.
Campbell/Simon would complain in a 2014 online interview that she had been burnt out by HarperCollins forcing her to produce four books a year. This could explain why this book is so appallingly bad ... but it doesn't excuse it. There is just no excuse for crap.
Horses that appear in this book include a pregnant Wonder, Wonder's Pride, Sierra, Shining, Precocious, Her Majesty, and Blues King. People include Smantha's best friends, Tor, the Pony Commandos and Mandy, who was introduced in the last book.
Oh, there's also some friction between Samantha and Tor, but that's completely forgettable.
One more thing: The kid protagonist in Jean Slaughter Doty's horse book The Crumb is named Cindy Blake. She's a lot smarter and loves horses more than the Cindy Blake of the Thoroughbred series. I have no idea if this Cindy Blake is named in honor of Doty's Cindy Blake, but I doubt it.
Enter Cindy, in an overly dramatic way. She does a B & E into Whitebrook Farm. This, of course, would NEVER HAPPEN on a real Kentucky Throughbred stud farm. You have dozens of million dollar horses and ZERO SECURITY?
Not only is this completely implausible, but that NO ONE ON THE FARM IS BOTHERED BY THIS. Instead of acting like normal workers at a Thoroughbred stable, they all immediately worry about Cindy. Samantha's father immediately wants to adopt her.
This complete stranger who BROKE INTO the broodmare barn, potentially jeopardizing the welfare of all the horses. And there are twin foals there.
Back the truck up there. Twins? At a Thoroughbred stud? Since the 1980s, Thoroughbred twins were never allowed to live. One fetus is always killed to ensure the other foal is strong and healthy. This is because twins usually are born small, sickly, and often kill the mare, such as the mare in this book. The twins are also described as being different colors -- dark bay and chestnut. This time, the cover artist actually got it right by making both foals the same color. Twins are usually the SAME color, but have different white markings.
Not that the twins really matter, since we rarely see them again. They vanished (mostly) with Campbell/Simon. But it shows the level of ignorance she had about Thoroughbred breeding and racing.
Quite a lot of this absolutely ridiculous story is about Samantha's family trying to be Cindy's official foster parents. She's taken away by an official that has a bias against horse farms, for an undisclosed reason. I guess Campbell/Simon was desperate to create some level of conflict, even if it had nothing to do with reality. Any Child Protective Service department is so understaffed and overworked that they couldn't have cared less where Cindy was, as long as she was not out on the street.
Samantha's father then suddenly announces that he has one more idea, drives away ... and returns with Cindy.
No explanation is given. We never learn what that great idea was. WHAT A LOAD OF BOLLOCKS.
Campbell/Simon would complain in a 2014 online interview that she had been burnt out by HarperCollins forcing her to produce four books a year. This could explain why this book is so appallingly bad ... but it doesn't excuse it. There is just no excuse for crap.
Horses that appear in this book include a pregnant Wonder, Wonder's Pride, Sierra, Shining, Precocious, Her Majesty, and Blues King. People include Smantha's best friends, Tor, the Pony Commandos and Mandy, who was introduced in the last book.
Oh, there's also some friction between Samantha and Tor, but that's completely forgettable.
One more thing: The kid protagonist in Jean Slaughter Doty's horse book The Crumb is named Cindy Blake. She's a lot smarter and loves horses more than the Cindy Blake of the Thoroughbred series. I have no idea if this Cindy Blake is named in honor of Doty's Cindy Blake, but I doubt it.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews