Book Review: Saddle Club #15: Team Play

I really like reading books about horses. The Saddle Club books are one of my favorite series. There are three main girls in this series. They are Carole Hanson, who is an absolutely horse-crazy person; Stevie Lake, who is rather unpredictable and likes practical jokes; and Lisa Atwood, who is a girl who always gets good grades, and gets convinced to start riding by her mother, then realizes she loves it.

In this book, Team Play, a riding team from Italy is visiting Pine Hollow—the local riding school, where the girls ride—and Stevie volunteers to take them under her wing while they are visiting. But Veronica diAngelo (the Saddle Club's rich, stuck-up archenemy) wanted the privilege for herself, and now she wants Stevie to have to back out. So, with the day of the riding team's arrival drawing near, Stevie suddenly finds herself getting congratulated for turning from her former ways, and deciding to organize the annual school fair, to run the Children's Hospital Festival, and to run for election as class president. This all comes as a great surprise to her. And the girls find out that their friends Kate and Christine (Kate was introduced in book 4 and Christine in book 6) are going to be visiting from Kate's family's ranch in the Southwest. But the visit, the school fair, the Festival, and the debate for class president all fall on the same day. Will Stevie be able to juggle 5 things at once, or will this turn out to be a great national calamity?

Book Review: Beric the Briton

Beric the Briton is a book by G. A. Henty about the Roman invasion of Britain. It was first published in 1892 in England by Blackie and Son. The edition my family owns was published by Preston/Speed in 1996 in the United States. It is 398 pages long, and has 12 illustrations.

Beric's mother is chief of the Sarci, a subtribe of the British tribe called the Iceni. To ensure the Sarci's obedience to Rome, when Beric was eleven, the Romans insisted that his mother Parta send him as a hostage to Camalodunum, the Roman capital. When Beric was fifteen, the Romans thought he was sufficiently Romanized, so he was permitted to return to his tribe. Soon after he returned, there were so many problems with wolves, that a hunt was organized to get rid of a lot of them. Altogether, about four thousand wolves were killed. When Beric went back to his home after the wolf hunt, he found that the Romans were planning an expedition against Mona, the Sacred Island, to destroy their religion.

Then, when news comes that Mona has been destroyed, the whole country goes up in arms! The Britons soon decide to attack Camalodunum. Will the British revolt succeed? or will it be crushed at the beginning?

One reason I like G. A. Henty is that he combines history with adventure. My favorite part of this book might be the fight in the swamp later on, but I had to reread  almost the whole book last night to be able to decide. I have other favorite parts, but if I said what they were it would give too much of the plot away.

Highly recommended for anyone who enjoys British or Roman history.