A handicapped girl forms a special bond with a gentle horse.
They forgot to add: The horse's jealous owner throws a hissy fit. Horse isn't the right term, however. Acorn is a pony.
Plot: It's summer again and the Pony Pals are going to be in another parade, seeing as the townspeople can't get enough of them. Things don't remain perfect forever, though. Christine, Anna's neighbor's niece, is visiting her aunt and becomes good friends with the Pony Pals. She loves ponies, is a good artist, and has cerebral palsy, but is afraid of riding horses. Anna should be best friends with her, but Christine falls madly in love with Acorn, as young blonde girls are wont to do in this series, making Anna super jealous.
Then Christine asks if she could take riding lessons on Acorn, and the Pony Pals readily agree, kind of forgetting ANNA IS THE ONE WHO OWNS ACORN.
Then Christine thinks up an idea for the fair/parade: a face painting booth! She starts practicing on local children and her ideas are SOOO much better than Anna's! Anna gets jealous and runs away one Acorn, even though she is worried that he might like Christine more than he likes her.
The Pony Pals come after her and convince her that Acorn loves her, bla bla bla, and then tell her that Christine's "great" ideas came from a book! Anna apologizes to Christine and the other girl accepts. They continue her lessons on Acorn.
Anna comes up with a great nonselfish idea: why not let Christine display her new riding talents in the parade...on Acorn?? She has Mike Lacey help her out, and Christine rides in the parade. Yay.
More notes:
I seriously marked like every page in this book. There's 90 PAGES!
OMG, JUST SAY BAY!!! It's always "brown-and-black", "brown-and-black". DUDE! HE'S BAY!
Dang, Christine is a really good artist. Compared to Anna, anyway.
Christine isn't all awkward about her disability and she's really nice. I like her.
The phrase "smacked her lips" always throws me off. I don't really get it.
AGH I hate people who are all, "Oh, she's disabled, she probably couldn't do that," and it's something like playing tag.
Pam: Anna's mother owns Off-Main Diner. It's the best diner in town.
Anna: It's the only diner in town.
Finally. Those girls needed a reality check.
Mrs. Crandal: I'll bring Daisy out.
Pam: Daisy is my mother's best school pony for beginners.
Daisy is your mother's only pony.
Pam: When a pony or horse is blond, it's called a palomino.
Anna: A Pony Pal palomino.
Laaame.
Daisy attacks Christine. Way to go.
The picture is so stupid. Daisy is humongous, Christine is floating in mid air, and Anna looks shocked like she should help her, but it is looking at something off to the side. Look up in the sky, it's a bird! It's a plane! It's Christine being attacked by a crazy Shetland pony, Anna! Get with the program!
Quizzes and guessing games are completely different things.
Oh no, Acorn did a trick for Christine without Anna's signal!
Paul Bachem's pictures look like crap, as usual.
Pam: My mother will put a special girth on Acorn. It has handles.
Yes, Pam. It's called a surcingle. If you were really such a horse expert, you'd know that.
Acorn does a new trick for Christine! Oooowned!
Anna is REALLY jealous, so she's like, "Acorn, get away from Christine. It's time for your, um, bath."
Jack and Jill are 6 again.
Whoa, the twins start talking to Christine about her walker and how beautiful it is.
Mike: Hi.
Anna: What are you doing here?
Mike: I was trying to catch up with you. And I did. I could have beaten you.
What is with boys and their competitiveness?
There's a picture of Rosalie running up to Anna WITH BROWN HAIR (she's so blonde!!), and all the Pony Pals look shocked/disgusted. ??? I thought they loved little kids?
Aw, Anna feels inferior. This is way depressing.
Mrs. Crandal: Okay. Acorn won't move until you tell him to.
Christine: How do I tell him?
Mrs. Crandal: Sit tall, make a clicking sound, and say, 'Move on.'
Squeezing lightly with your knees works, too.
They're supposed to be riding in a circle, but Christine is riding on the inside and Lulu and Pam keep passing her. So much for riding safety.
"I wish Christinewasn't here. I wish we were just the Pony Pals."
Doesn't Anna feel this anytime someone infiltrates their little group/joins their cult?
HOLY CRAP. Enough with the BROWNIES.
Anna is mean to Pam. I don't like Pam, so I'm not exactly objecting.
Okay, Christine's designs are really hideous. Her clown face is more of a drag queen.
Yeah, running out of the diner and riding away will give you the melodramatic edge you're going for, Anna.
Mike Lacey just randomly starts following her.
WHOA: Anna admits she's a horrible, selfish person. Whaaaaat? No way! Pam never admits she's wrong until someone else apologizes; Lulu is never wrong (in her own mind); but Anna's like, "Yeah, I suck." Go Anna!
Anna: Mike saw me crying. He better not tell Tommy.
Like he would.... "Dude, I totally saw that Anna girl crying!" "Aw, sweet, man! High five! Let's go pester her!" "Right on!"
Anna: Acorn likes Chris better than me.
Lulu: No, he doesn't. Acorn is friendly. That's the kind of pony he is.
That's the response jealous girlfriends get, too.
Oh, it turns out Christine is just a little plagiarist! Actually, not really. That's what face painting books are for.
Anna decides to apologize on her own! Woo!
Christine apologizes for keeping the book a secret. She thought maybe her ideas wouldn't be as good as Anna's. Are you kidding? Have you SEEN Anna's drawings?
"Christine drew a face. Anna painted the black parts of the vampire face. Christine did the red parts. She liked painting blood."
That sounds kind of creepy.
They have a drag queen clown, a passable lion, and a hippie child? The conservative parents of Wiggins would never go for that!
They draw something that looks like a monkey, but I think it's supposed to be a dragon.
No ways, Mike helps Anna out! He gets the surcingle for her so it's ready for the parade. Aww, I love Mike.
Anna: *face painting* Now you are a perfect rainbow.
Little boy: Wow! I'm never going to wash my face again!
You're a boy, so you probably never will.
Aw, Acorn does the tricks for Anna without a signal at the very end. How sweet.
I sort of liked that one. Not really. BEST MADDIE FINN EVER! CAN'T WAIT!
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