Stardust Stables #1 A Star Is Born by Sable Hamilton (Children's, 9 years +, 10E/10E)

 

January 2013, Little Tiger Press, 176 pages, Paperback, Review copy

Themes: friendship, rivalry (both friendly and not so friendly), riding school, performing stunts,

Content: humour

Summary from Little Tiger Press

Welcome to Stardust Stables – only daredevil riders need apply! Stardust is a stables with a difference… Set in the Colorado mountains, it’s home to the super-talented kids who are stunt riders for movie stars! 

New girl, Kami, can’t wait to join the team at Stardust, but she soon discovers that life there isn’t all glitz and glamour – there’s plenty of mucking out to do … not to mention the hours of training! When a studio comes looking for a stunt girl for a major new movie, Kami is eager to get the job, but will she have enough experience to rise to the challenge?

Nayu's thoughts

I squee-d pretty hard when I began reading it because not only was it a boarding school (of sorts) it wasn’t an ordinary horse training school – it’s for teens doing stunts on horses! How awesome is that? I stopped reading long enough to text my friend who enjoys riding horses as much as she does reading (I prefer to admire them from afar, then dived straight back in, a bit more elegantly that Kami’s first attempt at a trick on Magic. She doesn’t believe people when they say she is pretty good – although she has to when she gets to perform stunts for a movie!

I loved the characters in this book, especially Kami. I liked how at first she couldn’t totally lose herself into training – she was a bit homesick, which helped her make friends because the others knew what she was going through (she was the only new girl) and made an effort to help pull her out from moping. Life at Stardust Stables isn’t entirely great because without knowing why Kami makes an enemy who is quick to jump in and grab opportunities that, if played fairly, were for Kami. I was annoyed on Kami’s behalf, which did change near the end with a surprising revelation, as did the reason why the actress who Kami was performing stunts for was so snooty. Poor Kami – homesickness and 2 difficult personalities made her start rather tricky, but I promise she makes it through to the end and still stays on at the stunt school.

Find out more about Sable aka Jenny Oldfield's other books over on her website.

Suggested read

For more horse fun check out  Mulberry To The Rescue! by Che Golden (Children's, 9 years +, 10/10E)