Jade at the Champs by Amy Brown

Title: Jade at the Champs

Author: Amy Brown

Published: HarperCollins, 2011

Pages: 255

Series: Book 2, Pony Tales

First Line: " 'You haven't unpacked anything yet!' Jade's dad stood in her bedroom doorway, staring at the stack of untouched boxes."

Summary: At last Jade can do what she has always dreamed about - ride her own pony! In the second of the Pony Tales series, Jade Lennox faces a new challenge. Now that her dad is out of prison and has a job in Flaxton, she can prepare her beloved pony, Pip, for the national Pony Club Champs. She’s made the junior team, and her coach is Olympic gold medallist, Michaela Lewis. But when Pip develops laminitis, Jade must ride Dorian, the exquisite but temperamental grey. Can they become a partnership in time? Will Pip ever recover? And will saving another abused pony jeopardize her own chances of winning the championship? Jade faces some tough decisions.

Review: Jade at the Champs is one of those books that if you love horses then you’ll probably love. It’s written for a younger YA audience around 10-12 years of age but really anyone can enjoy it if it is their type of book.

The first half of the book had two main story lines, the first one was about Jade settling in and trying out for the Nationals Team for her towns Pony Club. This was all on the back so I wasn’t all that interested in that part but the second story line was about a girl named Lisa and there was a mystery surrounding her and I thought that part was really interesting.

The second half of the book was Jade at the Champs and that was interesting enough but my favourite part was the mystery surrounding Lisa. I thought that the champs part actually went by quite fast. I expected most of the book to be about the Champs but it was only about a third of the book.

One thing I didn’t like about Jade at the Champs was the characters. To me Jade seemed really pushy and just went ahead and did whatever she wanted without actually consulting anyone. It just really annoyed me. However, I’m not really one who is character focused when it comes to reading books.

I did learn quite a bit about horses reading this book. I don’t hate horses but they’ve never been an animal that I’ve really been interested in so I learnt a lot reading Jade at the Champs and I found it to be quite interesting.

On a final note, this is the second book in the Pony Tales series and while there were some details I wasn’t sure about as they must have been in the first book, I got the overall picture of what was happening and I honestly don’t think you need to read the first book to enjoy this one.

Fans of horses looking for a fun book about horse riding will definitely enjoy Jade at the Champs.

Source: HarperCollins NZ

Kiwi Spotlight