BLUE RIBBON DAY
by Catherine Hapka ; illustrated by Anne Kennedy
The eighth Pony Scouts book for the I Can Read! series is a little light on plot, but it will still please beginning readers.
Jill, Meg and Annie accompany Jill’s mom to the local fair with her pair of driving ponies. Once there, the girls’ delight in seeing the various animals is offset by a boy named Ben’s boasts that his horse, Champ, will win the driving class. The girls eat a perfectly astonishing amount of fairground junk food, then lose to Ben in a pie-eating contest. Next they help Jill’s mom prepare the ponies for her class, which she wins—and the girls decide not to lord it over Ben. The slight story recreates the atmosphere of a county fair, and if the characters don’t actually do much, they at least have a good time.
Young pony lovers will find it as enjoyable as the others in the series.
(Early reader. 5-8)