Coming Home (Heartland #1) [Paperback]

Lauren Brooke (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1, 2000 | Age Level: 9 and up | Grade Level: 4 and up

This powerful series follows Amy Fleming through the loss of her mother and her struggle to continue the work at Heartland-a refuge for abused and abandoned horses.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Heartland is a horse farm with the special mission of healing abused or neglected horses and finding them new homes. Fifteen-year-old Amy works alongside her talented mother, a gifted horse trainer who uses techniques similar to those of the trainer in The Horse Whisperer. While rescuing an abandoned stallion in a thunderstorm, Amy's mother is killed when a falling tree hits their car, and everything at Heartland--and everything in Amy's life--is thrown into turmoil. Amy's older sister, Lou, leaves her job to come to Heartland to help, and Amy begins to cope with the new circumstances of her life, relying on her work with her beloved horses to help her face the future without her mom.

Fans of the Saddle Club, Pine Hollow, and Thoroughbred series of horse novels will enjoy this sensitively told story that combines lots of authentic horse-farm details with Amy's challenges in dealing with her bossy older sister and her mom's sudden death. The story of Heartland is continued in After the Storm. (Ages 8 to 12) --Marcie Bovetz

From Booklist

Gr. 4-7. This first volume of a projected paperback series introduces a Virginia horse farm run by the Fleming family. Heartland specializes in helping horses with behavior problems. When Mrs. Fleming dies, 15-year-old Amy begins working through her grief by following in her mother's footsteps, helping a pony whose master has died and a show horse nervous around trailers. Meanwhile, practical older sister Lou tries to put the business end of the farm in order. There are hints of budding romance and rivalries with a neighboring farm, as well as family issues that need resolving, which will presumably to be tackled in future books. The writing style is unexceptional; emotions are intense throughout, and there are a lot of characters introduced and many loose ends, all expected in a first book. But horse lovers who have devoured and outgrown such series as Pony pals may like this, especially the idea that someone can work with troubled horses and have a normal teenage life at the same time. Catherine Andronik
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 9 and up
  
• Paperback: 144 pages
• Publisher: Scholastic Paperbacks; 1ST edition (June 1, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0439130204
• ISBN-13: 978-0439130202
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.3 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (123 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #90,304 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #62 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > Children's Books > People & Places > Social Issues > Death & Dying
  • #71 in Books > Children's Books > Social Situations > Death & Dying
  • #80 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > Children's Books > Animals > Horses > Fiction

More About the Author

Lauren Brooke lives outside London in an old English farmhouse. She divides her time between writing and mucking out the stalls of her two horses. In addition to writing the twenty-four Heartland books, Lauren is the author of the Chestnut Hill series.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Heartland series, February 18, 2006

By 

CS Hattier-Neblett (Fairfax, VA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Coming Home (Heartland #1) (Paperback)

I am a veterinarian and mother who is constantly trying to find books of interest for her (now) thirteen-year-old son. Unfortunately, the series was not a winner with him-his tastes run to science fiction-but it was with me as I bought and read the entire set. From a human relations standpoint, Amy's growth and development as a young adult are spot-on, as are her human-horse relationships. Her development as a budding pre-vet student is also accurate as she learns to interpret the many non-verbal cues from her patients in order to come to her diagnoses. This is a wonderful series of books for any young person lucky enough to share special bonds with other non-human beings, horse (or cat) or otherwise. The series is also excellent for any young person experiencing great loss, because it helps teach how move forward in the face of tremendous pain, how to grow and thrive, not merely survive.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Healing Horses, Healing Hearts- a wonderful series, June 11, 2001

By 

puff-skyrock (Minneapolis, MN USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Coming Home (Heartland #1) (Paperback)

Heartland is a place Amy's mother started after nursing her husband's show jumper, Pegasus, back to health using alternative remedies and therapies, due to an accident that the horse and rider were both injured, and Amy's father leaves to recover. She started to take in other problem or abused horses and helped them to learn to trust again. When she died, Amy and her older sister, had to take over everything, and tried to keep the place going. Amy finds she has the same horse-whispering talents as her mother, and struggles to take over the work her mother had done so well. Amy works hard to keep Heartland in business and to overcome the sadness of losing her mother, to realize it was not her fault her mother died. This book was very emotional and descriptive, written very well. You could feel Amy's sadness at losing her mother in an accident that she felt was her fault, for she had convinced her mother to go out in a storm to rescue an abandoned horse, Spartan. I recommend this book to everyone who has some connection with the world of the horse, or anyone who loves reading at all. This book has everything- romance, adventure, drama, action, and tragedy that will keep you blowing your nose and crying your heart out until you take the trip to the library or your local bookstore to pick up the rest of the series, when it will start all over again. The entire series is wonderful and heartbreaking, and I highly recommend every single book that is included to you. The rest of the series deals with Amy adjusting to her new life without her mother and her sister's new ideas to keep Heartland up and running, and to face the horse that is the subject to all Amy's fears and heartache, Spartan.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Heartland is great!, September 28, 2000

A Kid's Review

This review is from: Coming Home (Heartland #1) (Paperback)

I found the book in a bookstore last summer, from it's title I could tell it was going to be good, I was very surprised at how different this book was from other horse books. I have already bought heartland two and I will buy number 3 very soon! If you like horses, or if you have lost a loved one, you would love heartland.