Stealaway Book

With its driving narrative and compelling illustrations, Stealaway is an exciting read for fans of horse stories, ghost stories, and the moody mysteries of the bleak Scottish highlands.

Nicky moves to Scotland, where her mother, a horse trainer, will work for Mr. Robson, a wealthy American who has just purchased his family's ancestral estate, Bloodybow Castle. True to its name, the castle has a terrible past. Hundreds of years ago, border raiders stole a priceless stallion, starting a feud that led to the death of a young boy. Nicky and her new friend Jed, the son of the American owner, find that strange events are taking place. And Stealaway, Mr. Robson's new stallion, is threatened in a ghostly attack. Can Nicky and Jed put the ghosts of the past to rest to ensure a safe future for Bloodybow Castle and its stable?

Kirkus Reviews

When Nicky's mother Pearl takes a job as a horse trainer at a remote Scottish castle, Nicky expects discomfort and desolation-but not 70-year-old magic ponies, legends of border wars, or ghosts. Bloodybow's bloody past centers on the theft of a stallion 500 years ago, and the resulting feud that left a child dead. Now Nicky and her new friend Jed find Bloodybow's new stallion under attack. Peyton's usual economy and directness serve the supernatural well, yet the short tale doesn't hang together believably. What do the ghosts want? Who was Rowan, the magic pony, in the past, and why can she move between past and present when the other ghosts can't? In the end, Bloodybow's stables are consumed by fire, but the new stallion survives, and it's not clear why the danger is now over. The slimness of the book will attract readers to young for the plot. (Fiction. 7-11)