Reread: "Dream Horse" by Bonnie Bryant

 

Dream Horse by Bonnie Bryant
First read sometime in the 90s
★★★

I was never much of a horse girl, but I was a book girl. I read myself through huge swathes of the library. Some of those books are more or less imprinted on my memory...and some take longer to recall.

Dream Horse is in the latter category: I remembered, hazily, a scene involving an ill (quite possibly dying) girl who was unable to eat her favourite disgusting ice cream concoctions. That's not a lot to go on, but after years of trying(!), a Goodreads group found it for me.

As it turns out, I had the ice-cream scene partially but not entirely correct:

One of the things about Stevie that seemed an eternal mystery to her friends was what constituted her "favorite" ice cream sundaes. Ghastly was one word her friends sometimes used to describe them. Revolting was another word they'd used from time to time. Inventive was what Stevie called them.

A few minutes later they ordered butter pecan ice cream with licorice bits and caramel sauce to go and pooled every cent they had on them to pay for it.

"Oh, and some chopped peanuts and marshmallow fluff," Lisa added.

Carole winced. That was how she knew they'd gotten a really good combination. If it made her stomach twinge just to hear the ingredients, it was guaranteed to please Stevie. (32)

As it turns out, Stevie isn't dying (not a spoiler—just bad memory!), though her concussive effects are severe enough to induce something of a personality transplant and possibly psychic powers, which does make one wonder just how much the doctors missed. And there are two other plotlines that I remembered clearly. In one, two girls go 'undercover' to help an adult figure out if a horse trader is corrupt:

"Oh, Mommy! Mommy! Look at the horsie!" Lisa said.

"Too young," said Deborah.

"Wow, Mom! Look at all the horses! Lisa tried a second time."

"Much better," said Deborah. She pulled the car to a stop at the barn and opened the door. (47)

In another, the snooty rich girl enters a photo contest and enlists the use of a private plane to get up-close photos of the sky. The second photograph was of sky and clouds. It was pretty, but it didn't seem very special until Lisa realized that it was taken very close to the clouds (95). If you'd asked me before this re-read, I could have told you about those scenes but would have said that they came from completely different books.

None of these is the main plot, though—in the main plot, Stevie is suffering the effects of a concussion; in a secondary plot, a friend goes missing while out on a glider flight. It's all nicely wrapped together...but it is perhaps worth noting that there is some terrible precedent here. If you are lost on a mountain, you are safe for the time being, and there is good reason to think that people will be looking for you soon, do not go wandering away from your position without food or water or survival gear. (If you are out on a small-craft flight, submit a flight plan.) If you are twelve and think you know up what impassable-but-not-actually-impassable trail your missing friend can be found, alert authorities. Do not go mavericking your way up a mountain with a stolen horse.

I'm not sorry that I didn't read more Saddle Club books as a kid (I was more into Marguerite Henry), but it was a ride(!) to revisit this one.