Saddle Club – The Inside Story: Stevie

Bonnie Bryant's The Inside Story: Stevie is a Saddle Club story for 9 year olds about a girl who has to write her way out of trouble.

What happens

Stevie Lake's grades have slipped. Her headmistress, Miss Fenton, calls her in and lays the marks out on the desk (the maths test is the one she actually failed).

And there's a rule at Pine Hollow. Any rider who drops below a C average doesn't ride until the grades come back up. With summer only weeks away, that could mean no riding ALL summer and no riding camp with Carole and Lisa.

Miss Fenton offers a way out. Stevie can make up the worst of the work, plus one extra job. She has two weeks to write a report explaining exactly why it all went wrong, and it had better be interesting.

Her first go is all about responsibility. It's so dull she gives up after a few paragraphs, in a lot of capital letters. Then she has a brainstorm. Why not show Miss Fenton her actual life?

That's how the book works. It's told through Stevie's letters, emails and the report itself, so you get her voice straight up. Her friends chip in by email too. Lisa suggests footnotes. Carole thinks the whole thing should be about horses. Stevie's moaning about both of them to her old friend Dinah is some of the funniest stuff in here.

The report turns into a story of its own. There's a trip to Vermont for sugaring off, a sap-collecting contest done by horse-drawn sleigh, and a man on the plane who sleeps through her whole lecture on maple syrup. (She tells him she's forty-three and off deep-sea diving. It's very Stevie.)

Who hasn't been sure their reason for not doing the homework was a VERY good one? Stevie is completely convinced, and that confidence is half the fun. A bit of real learning sneaks in too, from how much sap it takes to make a gallon of syrup to what Vermont's name means.

The Saddle Club girls have plenty of history already. Stevie mentions a fox hunt, a racehorse and a horse called Pepper, and your reader will pick things up as they go.

What to read next

If they enjoy being inside Stevie's head, Lisa's own Inside Story swaps the jokes for a diary. Lisa is the careful, straight-A one, and seeing the same friendship from her side is a treat.