Magic Ponies: Pony Camp by Sue Bentley

September 2009, Puffin Books
128 pages, Paperback
Review copy

Children's, 5+

Clouds: 3/5
Cushions: 1/5
Pencils: 4/5
Smiles: 5/5
Yunaleska's recommended rating:♥♥♥♥♥

Ponies capture the imagination of many readers. Add magic into the mix and the readership widens. Magic ponies live on Rainbow Mist Island. Thanks to events in previous stories, Comet is searching for his twin sister Destiny, who doesn't know that she can return safely home. His search takes him to meet Lindsey, who is reluctantly attending pony camp.

Lindsey is a solitary girl, and her parents want her to make friends. Pony camp is ideal with the other girls sharing the same interests. Plus, she looks set to lose ownership of her pony Allsorts due to financial difficulty. Lindsey feels out of place at the camp, not knowing the ropes like the other girls. Thankfully Comet reveals himself to her, and explains what he needs to do. Lindsey is all set to help him, but searching for Destiny proves tricky.

She doesn't even tell the nice late comer Penny about Comet. She has to lie to Penny about what she's doing. Thankfully this doesn't affect their relationship in the long term. Her new friendship with Penny will get her through the sadness when Comet has to leave her at the end of the book, and proves beneficial with regards to Allsorts' status.

The loneliness which Lindsey feels when she first arrives at camp, the way the more experienced, mean campers treat her and the joy of finding true friendship in both Penny and Comet are aspects of life which most readers can relate to on some degree or other. I like how Lindsey feels about Comet, because sometimes we do only meet people for a short time in life but they can make quite an impact on us.

The fun parts of the book are the illustrations - especially when mean girl Tash ends up in the manure thanks to help from Comet. An added extra is having to find words written on a feather in the illustrations - if readers collect the words from all the books, they can be put together in a message which could win them prizes. I think this helps readers pay more attention to illustrations, which capture the characters' nature in a way words can't always convey.

Liked this? Try Mustang Mountain: Wild Horse by Sharon Siamon.