Katie and the Mustang Series, Kathleen Duey

Katie and the Mustang Series, Kathleen Duey
(individual books are untitled)

Book 1: ISBN: 9780142400906
Book 2: ISBN: 0525472738
Book 3: ISBN: 0142400920
Book 4: ISBN: 0142400939

Read October 14-18, 2013

This is the second series of early-chapter horse books I've read by Kathleen Duey.  I have to say that I like the Irish set more than these.  For some reason, the main character in this story struck me as less active and more emotionally fragile than in the previous set.  As the "girl power" themes are part of why I liked the others as much as I did, I found the lack here to be disconcerting.

I also thought that the themes and main ideas here were a little more mature and harder to grasp - Katie is escaping from an abusive home and traveling ALONE on the Oregon trail with a farm-hand she barely knows (problematic by itself), and then as the series progresses, there are issues of "ladylike behavior" and the existence of ignored or persecuted Mormon pioneers, and the presence of a traveling circus (deemed to be dangerously not respectable people).  Further, and more pertinent to the horse-mad reader, Katie refuses to attempt to tame the mustang, despite the hardships of the Oregon Trail, meaning that there are no thrilling instances of the horse being ridden, and the bond between them remains fragile and tenuous, despite the author's best intentions.  This will likely frustrate the seriously horse-crazed, and the postscript of incoming foals who aren't even included in the book will do little alleviate that frustration.

However - because I didn't find them as good as the others, doesn't mean that they're all bad.  I do think that I would prefer to read the other set aloud, and let a horse-mad reader discover these on their own.   If I had to recommend a set from this author, I'd go with the original Irish Hoofbeats Series, or perhaps the Unicorn's Secret Series, which I'll be working through shortly.