Katie and the Mustang (Hoofbeats Series: Katie #4) Book

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'Ware Spoilers!

Generalized Synopsis: Basically the story is a series of small plots in an overarching theme. The best way to experience the books is to read them all in one sitting (very easy to do) once you have them. All but book 2 is available from Archive.org.
The story centers around Katie, a little girl who ends up, after some bad circumstances, an orphan being taken in by a childless couple. In a Harry Potter-esque fashion, Katie ends up in an even worse situation - which weirdly fits the timeline this is all happening- and finds herself escaping her stepparents with a mustang that the man had bought. The horse is, of course, wild to anyone who isn't Katie. The rest of the books revolves around Katie traveling the Oregon Trail, first with the farmhand who helps her get there, then again with another family all the way to Oregon City.

What I liked: The one thing I've come to appreciate about Duey's plots is they're entirely grounded in realistic expectations. She follows in Marguerite Henry's fashion, where the protagonist doesn't always get what they want in the end, or does get something close to what they wanted, despite everything. I appreciate it and find it terribly depressing at the same time. I grew up with the books where everything tied up perfectly in a bow, the protagonist's dreams and wishes become reality and the bad guys got their just desserts. This doesn't completely happen in this book. The whole book gravitates around the girl's relationship with this horse, and yet at the end she's forced to make a difficult decision. The whole drive behind the plot is to find her uncle, as we're reminded constantly all the way up to the end, and that doesn't exactly end how she expected, either. It's great in that it shows children this … sense of realism, reality, what the world is actually like. But at the same time it's just like man something needs to go right, something über positive needs to happen here.

What Annoyed Me: While I liked the realism, some of the wishy-washy characters were frustrating, and only showed just how weak the plot really is. It is a children's series. The plot revolves around relationships and circumstances, and some of those characters only existed to be the antagonist, to cause conflict, or to…evolve into protagonists later in the books for no real reason other than the author wanted them to.

Overall: This series has its faults, sure, but it's a really good animal/historical fiction series. It does have negative notes, and I would suggest reading it yourself before deciding if your child is up for it. I'd say it's for mature older children, or children who enjoy these types of books.
I give this series 3 Stars.