Mustang Mountain: Wild Horse by Sharon Siamon

August 2009, Egmont books

199 pages

Review copy

Children's, 9+

Cushions: 1/5

Tissues: 1/5

Smiles: 2/5

Yunaleska's recommended rating: ♥♥♥♥

I'm not keen on horses, but I love horse stories. Yes, I have ridden on a horse. They are far too high off the ground for my liking. In books, they're at a safe distance.

Before I delve into the story, I'd like to share something on the inside illustrations which lie at the bottom of every page. At first I thought the book was dirty, which is odd because it's fresh from the publishing house (♥'s my donators). Then I realised it was black at the bottom, which is a nice touch. How I managed to be completely unobservant until half way through the novel is a little beyond me, I blame the usual post lunch sleepiness. However, on each page, is a small figure on a horse. At the beginning of the book the figure is all the way to the left. As the book progresses, so does the horse and rider, galloping across the bottom of the page to the far corner of the right page. It's the little things which amuse this reviewer.

On to the story! Now, I read the blurb on the back, and I thought Alison's character would be slightly different. I thought that her parents were cruel in selling her horse. They are (sort of), in that they were cruelly teaching her a lesson. I didn't realise she was rather spoilt in general. Views of her from her horse mad friends Meg and Becky didn't really change that view. It was Alison's personal views which did.

Yes, she is spoilt, can be stubborn and proud. She looks down on cousin Terri's basic, practical accommodation and sulks when her plan at manipulating her parents into buying a new horse fails. However, during one of her sulks she comes across a horse who might not make it to auction because she is sick. Alison's softer side comes out, as she remembers what it was like to feel sick at the beginning of the holiday. Daringly she comes up with a lie to save the horse, which works but it then leaves her to find the means to keep her promise.

This is what I call a sweet friendship story. Becky and Meg have what I call sensible characters, as opposed to Alison's spoilt rich child syndrome. However, thanks to the sick horse, Alison thinks more of others, and puts her heart in the right place at the end.

I had one small grumble: the cousin's agreement to carry out the plan which Alison lied about at the end seemed to happen a little too easily. I didn't fully follow the reasoning behind her change of tune. I would have liked that to have been explained a little more thoroughly, it all seemed a little convenient. The following sentence contains a SPOILER so please skip to the next paragraph if you want to miss it. SPOILER start: I half expected Alison's grandmother to buy the two mares. SPOILER end.

Sharon Siamon's website is here.

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