Kirkus
Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

This sequel to The Georges and the Jewels(2009)is Smiley at her finest--detailed, nuanced, absorbing.Abby Lovitt's eighth-grade year starts out feeling less tumultuous than the year before: Her school life is more settled, her parents more at peace and Ornery George, a horse she struggled with, has been sold.Though she continues toride several horses a day,two in particularfill her heart: Black George,who will jump anything, and Jack, her beautiful orphan foal.Suddenly it seems shewill lose them both.Black George is so talented he's sure to attract an offer Abby's Daddy won't refuse, and, though her father bought Jack's dam in good faith,shemay have been stolen, which means Jack may have to be returned.Abby, though, is learning to separate the gold from the dross, to see her family, friends, the rich people on the horse-show circuit and especially her horses with unflinching, compassionate truth.Black George and Jack are good horses, in every sense of the word; Abby will be good, too.Rich, real and utterly engrossing. (Historical fiction.10-14)]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Horn Book
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Abby learns that Jack, the colt she rescued in The Georges and the Jewels, might have been sired by a famous race horse. Meanwhile, she works on jumps with Black George for an upper-class horse show. In a novel heavy on horsewomanship, from the show circuit to cow-punching, Abby's no-nonsense personality and understated competence will appeal to accomplished and wannabe riders alike. Copyright 2010 of The Horn Book, Inc. All rights reserved.