THE FIELDS OF PRAISE

From England, a dream-come-true horse story that is also a bright and rounded family story. Though she has scarcely ridden at all, Gillian Caridia is certain that someday she will ride in the Horse of the Year Show at Wembley--and Mummy believes her, for that is just how she felt about Daddy, an esteemed but impoverished and inconveniently principled writer. And when the family moves to the ramshackle country place where Daddy grew up, Gill meets and falls in love with the beautiful gray pony whose elderly owner, Mr. Ramsay, decides on the spot that Gill (and not his spoiled, snobbish granddaughter) should ride the very special Perdita to fame. And so they prepare, with Mr. Ramsay coaching Gill, working up from a small local show. . . until he collapses a week before the big event and his jealous daughter-in-law cancels the van Gill needs to gel Perdita to Wembley. Mrs. Ramsay is an overdrawn villain to be sure, and the plot common-place--even to Gill's pop-singer sister's eleventh-hour win of the 80 pounds for the van--but the writing isn't. And, as to plot, the very end is tougher, with Gill inheriting Perdita but financially unable to keep her For assuming that girls who love horses might also prefer some dimension to theft fiction, Leitch too rates a share of praise.