A Stallion Called Midnight by Victoria Eveleigh

A Stallion Called Midnight by Victoria Eveleigh
Buy A Stallion Called Midnight by Victoria Eveleigh at Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com
Category: Confident Readers
Reviewer: Sue Magee
Summary: A great story about a friendship between a young girl and a wild stallion. It kept me reading well into the night. Highly recommended.
Buy? Yes	Borrow? Yes
Pages: 232	Date: June 2012
Publisher: Orion Chuldren's Books
External links: Author's website
ISBN: 978-1444005523
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Jenny lived on Lundy with her father who was a farmer on the south of the island. It was an idyllic life: everyone knew and helped everyone else and it was rather like living in a big extended family. This was important to Jenny as her mother had died in a cliff fall when she was just five. Jenny had a secret though. Wild ponies roamed freely on the island and the stallion, Midnight, was considered to be the wildest of them all, but he liked and trusted Jenny and allowed her to ride on his back. Midnight has a dreadful reputation and Jenny dreaded what would happen when she had to leave the island and go away to school.

I've recently enjoyed Victoria Eveleigh's stories about Katy and the wild ponies of Exmoor. What do you do when you've read the three books available? Well, you turn to this standalone story, based on the legend of a stallion on Lundy who was known as Midnight. It's perhaps aimed at a slightly older girl than the earlier books, but many if not all fans of the Katy books will happily move on to Midnight. The book might appeal to a boy with a particular interest in matters equestrian and there is a good male character, but he's very much subsidiary to Jenny.

Eveleigh evokes Lundy brilliantly. There's an excellent map so that you follow what Jenny - and the ponies - are doing and you get a real feel for the isolation and the pros and cons of living on the island. But Eveleigh's real skills are that she completely understands the preteen girl and that her knowledge of wild ponies is not only encyclopaedic but empathetic as well. It's used with a very light touch though - there's no shoehorning in every bit of research, relevant or not. This is someone who knows the subject thoroughly and weaves it as a shining thread through a brilliant story.

I smiled. I cried on a couple of occasions. I loved the way that Eveleigh brought out, in the nicest possible way, that a human's dream of what was best for an animal might not be what is right. It neatly extends to people, with only a little thought. There's a neat point too about the difference between friendship and popularity and what's really important in life. I loved it.

Illustrations are by Eveleigh's husband Chris. I'd like to thank the publishers for sending a copy to the Bookbag.

Girls who love this book are certain to enjoy Chancey by Gigi Amateau.

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