The ponies may be in great danger! The Pony Pals are afraid for their ponies. Did the ponies run away? But how could they untie their leads? Have the ponies been stolen?'
Now, not to be too snarky too early out given the title of the book is literally Stolen Ponies, I feel that last question in the blurb has already answered itself. I also feel like it's a somewhat misleading title, given that the pony stealing doesn't happen until halfway through the book.
To start off, I just have to mention how much I loved these book covers as a kid. I really prefer this art style over the almost photorealistic ones they moved into later in the series. Plus, it's really cute how, depending on which Pony Pal in the main character for the book, their pony gets the little portrait picture on the front and back cover. This one's an Anna book, so it's Acorn's turn to be front and centre.
Anyway, the book begins with Anna retrieving Acorn from his paddock. Tommy and Mike show up and tease Anna.They do that super mature thing where they repeat everything she's saying back to her, and Anna exercises great restraint by not snapping off the nearest fence post and impaling them both with it. Lulu shows up and one-ups the boys by spooking them with her whistle. They literally wheelie away on their bikes, as ten-year-old boys are wont to do, I guess?
Anna and Lulu then ride Acorn and Snow White over to Pam's house, and the three girls head out to their secret hideout. Does anyone else remember being a kid and desperately wanting your own hideout? I feel like hideouts are a thing we should bring back for adults. Anyway, the Pony Pals' hideout is described as such:
'Three sides of the hideout were the remains of the stone foundation of a small building. Bushes created the fourth side ... They'd stretched an old piece of canvas over the top for a roof.'
Sounds very structurally sound! The girls have a picnic lunch, and then ride over the Badd Brook to go riding in the forest. Once they do, they realise they can smell smoke, and come across an abandoned campfire. They put the fire out, and Anna does a drawing of a nearby sneaker print for evidence. They find candy wrappers, and Lulu also spots more footprints, but from different shoes. The Pony Pals deduce there were two people at the campfire. Despite it being glaringly obvious who left the campfire unattended, the girls assume it was campers. They decide to follow the tracks in hopes of catching the campers and explaining to them the dangers of leaving campfires unattended. (Remember, kids. Smokey the Bear says only the Pony Pals can prevent forest fires!)
The girls follow the footprints and come across a hole in a rock ledge, and see the remains of another campfire burning inside it. They decide this must be the campers' hideout. Pam stays back with the ponies, and Anna and Lulu sneak inside to take a look. They find more rubbish, an identical sneaker print to the one Anna drew, and a box of matches from Bart's Bowling Alley in Chicago. Anna and Lulu are still convinced that these must belong to campers from Chicago, until Anna finally remembers that Mike's father is from Chicago, and he just got back from visiting him. I have to say, Anna, we would call that evidence circumstantial. It'd never hold up in a court of law!
Anyway. Instead of telling a family member or trusted adult that their town has two budding arsonists, the Pony Pals decide to send a warning, and write an anonymous letter and leave it under Mike's door. Pam writes the letter because she has the best handwriting, and signs it, 'Sincerely, A Person Who is Watching You!!!' Now, if I was in Mike's shoes, I would've run straight to my parents to share that I had a stalker, but that's not the course of action Mike and Tommy take.
Two days later, the girls ride back out to their hideout, only to find it's been SET ON FIRE. They put out the fire, and find a note from the boys telling them, 'Find another place to play with your little ponies. Or else.' Thankfully, Pam has the good sense to realise they can't solve this on their own, and very sensibly says they should go and visit the park ranger and explain what's been happening. However, when the girls leave their hideout the find their ponies have been ... stolen! (Dun dun dun!)
The Pony Pals follow their ponies' hoof prints, but eventually the trail ends because the rain has washed them away. They start worrying about everything that could go wrong with their ponies. Lulu frets because Snow White is afraid of storms, and Pam worries that the boys will turn the ponies loose, causing them to panic and get lost. Anna is afraid that, in the rainy weather, one of the ponies could slip in the mud and break a leg. I do feel this is a tad overdramatic. If the weather was safe enough for the girls to be riding outside, then surely it's safe enough for the boys to lead the ponies by hand, too?
The girls keep searching for the ponies. Because of the rain, the river is much higher than normal, but the girls manage to cross it by jumping rocks across the Badd Brook. Thankfully, this isn't Bridge to Terabithia, so they all cross it without traumatising an entire generation of readers. They then realise that Tommy and Mike are on the other side of the brook, the one they just left, and they have the ponies with them. Lulu and Pam sneak back over the creek, and Anna stays behind to distract them if they spot the girls coming back for the ponies.
When Anna realises Tommy and Mike are about to leave, she jumps out to buy some time. She pretends to plead for Acorn back, and then uses her whistle to call him. Acorn swims across the river, and while Tommy and Mike are distracted, Pam and Lulu get Lightning and Snow White back. By this point, the girls have realised the boys are lost, and Anna's immediate impulse to leave them for dead. Which IMHO is an extremely valid response. Pam, the voice of reason, says they should show the boys which path to take home, but only once they've promised not to bother the girls again. However, Tommy and Mike proceed to be little shits, and Tommy's all, 'I'm not afraid of no Park Ranger!' Pam calls his bluff, and rides off to go and find him.
The girls take a break because their ponies are tired, and once again, out of the goodness of their hearts, decide to offer to show the boys the way out of the forrest. The boys are, once again, complete dicks about it, so the girls ride off and leave them behind. They end up crossing paths with the Park Ranger, who has already figured out that Tommy and Mike are the kids who've been setting campfires. He gives them a stern talking to, and bans them from the forest. Yay! The Park Ranger ends up giving the boys directions, so the Pony Pals gallop off, free from Tommy and Mike's annoying behaviour until, presumably, the next book.
Final thoughts: This was pretty fun. Stories involving searching for clues and hunting down missing ponies was the stuff I loved as a kid. I do wish that the Pony Pals had left the boys to die of dehydration as they wandered in circles lost in the forest behind to learn their lesson, but obviously this is a children's series so that's not going to happen.
No comments:
Post a Comment