Arly and Spike

Steve Pitt is a Toronto-based freelance writer and an award-winning journalist. He has written many young adult and children's books, including Day of the Flying Fox: The True Story of World War II Pilot Charley Fox.

If Spike is really a special horse, only 10-year-old Arly Anderson can
see it. Her mother, a professional horse trainer, thinks Spike is just a
clumsy colt who will never make it as a show horse or jumper. Arly knows
otherwise. She can sense something exceptional in Spike even though he
is constantly crashing into things and falling over his own four feet.
When Arly’s mom announces her intention to sell Spike, Arly decides
that the only way she can save him is to prove that Spike is as good a
jumper as any other horse on the ranch.

This is not a bad book; there is just not very much to it. Arly and
Spike is one of those innumerable stories about an underdog
(underhorse?) character that all the adult experts write off as a loser
until one determined little person proves them wrong. Luanne
Armstrong’s text is adequate and Chao Yu’s illustrations are also
adequate. But the plot is unexceptional. Arly and Spike is basically a
comic book without enough pictures. Not a first-choice purchase.