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Double Take
Karen Brain's Olympic Journey
Double Take is for young horse-lovers, biography fans, or simply anyone who loves an inspiring story.
From an early age, Canadian equestrian Karen Brain is determined to someday compete in the Olympics. Her first riding lessons aren't terribly encouraging, but Karen is determined. Soon jumping over obstacles becomes her specialty—literally and figuratively, as she struggles to get her own mount, the coaching she needs, and the funds to achieve her goals.
80 pp • 8 x 7
ISBN 1-55039-162-3 • paper • $12.95
80+ b/w and colour pictures
ages 8 - 12
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Cave of Departure
The Estorian Chronicles Book I
Twelve-year-old Dominique fails to complete a deadly serious ritual and is banished from his place with the Estorian people, a tribe of nomadic storytellers. He must travel alone to a distant cave where, it is believed, he will find the voice he has always longed for. His quest takes him to far-off lands where he must do battle with a mighty river serpent, outwit pungent yagabonos, and survive capture by a group of powerful leranons.
Inspired by the creatures and legends of a variety of mythologies, Nikki Tate has created a world where there is no greater honour-and no greater challenge-than being a magnificent storyteller. The first novel in the Estorian Chronicles Trilogy, Cave of Departure introduces a feisty young word warrior and his female counterpart, Amana, the Campriano, whose relentless search for the truth is destined to change Dominique’s life forever.
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The Battle for Carnillo
The Estorian Chronicles Book II
Banished from his tribe, twelve-year-old Dominique's quest continues as he reaches the great port city of Carnillo. Civil strife and rumours of imminent invasion bring suspicion upon all who walk the streets. Arrested and imprisoned, Dominique receives help from an unexpected ally and is drawn into a confusing conspiracy of constantly shifting alliances. As he attempts to unravel the truth behind the strange web of conflicting stories about his father, Dominique learns there is a greater challenge before him.
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Rebel of Dark Creek
StableMates 1
Jessa is in Grade 6 and eats, sleeps and dreams horses. But lessons and ponies are expensive, how will she ever manage to buy or lease a horse of her own? With a combination of work, luck, and good friends she finds a pony named Rebel... and then the adventures begin. On with the gumboots, up with the pitchfork and Jessa has to learn to work for Rebel's room and board while keeping up in school and coping with some strange behaviour from a few classmates.
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Team Trouble at Dark Creek
StableMates 2
When two giant draft horses take up residence at Dark Creek Stables, the trouble starts. Fences collapse, Mrs. Bailey can't keep up with the feed bills and Jessa's pony, Rebel, finds himself out in the cold during the worst blizzard of the century. To make things worse, Jessa and he best friend can't seem to get along and a surprise visitor nearly ruins Jessa's Christmas vacation. Will Dark Creek ever be the same again?
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Jessa Be Nimble, Rebel Be Quick
StableMates 3
Jessa is completely stressed out! Her terrifying dreams about water jumps just won't stop. In fact, as the date of Jimmy McBride's eventing clinic draws closer, the nightmares keep getting worse. At school, she's responsible for helping the new girl from Japan settle in. Unfortunately for Jessa, her efforts to help just seem to make Midori unhappier. Jessa's best friend, Cheryl, is no help at all – she's too busy trying to land a juicy part in a play.
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Sienna's Rescue
StableMates 4
When four abused and neglected horses are seized by the Kenwood Animal Rescue Society, Jessa convinces Mrs. Bailey that Dark Creek Stables would be a perfect foster farm for one of them, but nobody is prepared for the challenges of Sienna's rehabilitation. Can Jessa and her friends save the young renegade mare from the slaughterhouse? Why is Mrs. Bailey behaving so strangely around Walter Walters? And what is Jessa going to do with Romeo, the lovable mutt who shows up at the little house on Desdemona Street and refuses to leave?
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Raven's Revenge
StableMates 5
When Jessa wins a trip for two to horse camp, she and Cheryl are so excited they can hardly think of anything else. But Camp Singing Waters may not be a blissful getaway. Feuding campers, a lame horse and drafty cabins are bad enough, but should they have listened more carefully to Mrs. Bailey's ominous warnings about Dr. Rainey's experiments with witchcraft? Or, are the late-night ghost stories around the campfire just feulling their overactive imaginations?
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Return to Skoki Lake
StableMates 6
When Jessa wins a trip for two to horse camp, she and Cheryl are so excited they can hardly think of anything else. But Camp Singing Waters may not be a blissful getaway. Feuding campers, a lame horse and drafty cabins are bad enough, but should they have listened more carefully to Mrs. Bailey's ominous warnings about Dr. Rainey's experiments with witchcraft? Or, are the late-night ghost stories around the campfire just feulling their overactive imaginations?
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Keeping Secrets at Dark Creek
StableMates 7
Fans of Nikki Tate’s horse novels will be happy to see Jessa and the rest of the Dark Creek gang back for more horsey action in the seventh volume of the best-selling StableMates series. Jessa continues to struggle to control her new mount, Jasmine, even as she tries to keep a lid on her intense jealousy towards Molly, the young rider who has been taking lessons on Jessa’s beloved pony, Rebel.
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Tarragon Island
An Exciting New Series!
Heather Blake can't believe her bad luck when her family moves from Toronto to tiny Tarragon Island on the West Coast. What will she, a budding author, write about on this rock in the middle of nowhere? Heather's mother is too busy getting established as the local veterinarian and her father too obsessed with his new sailboat for either of them to pay much attention to her predicament. But with a writer's creativity, Heather finds herself planning a brilliant escape.
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No Cafes in Narnia, A Tarragon Island Novel
It's not easy to have a private life on a small island. Thirteen-year-old Heather Blake can't
stand the fact people on Tarragon Island know about her family's traumas practically before
she does. The local youth writing group is supposed to help her meet people and improve
her writing skills. Instead, Heather finds herself revealing way too much about both her
writing life and her private thoughts to kids she can't believe are becoming her friends.
Heather's new school, a budding romance, serious family illness, a strange crime, and even
stranger island residents cause more trouble than she thinks she can handle. It will take all
the strength and determination Heather can muster if she hopes to survive and carve out a
place for herself in her new island home.
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Trouble on Tarragon Island
Heather Blake is horrified when her grandmother gets involved with the Ladies of the Forest, a radical group of protesters willing to do just about anything to save a stand of old-growth trees from the loggers' chainsaws. When the Ladies make a calendar, semi-nude photos of Granny and her friends hang on just about every fridge on Tarragon Island. Things get even worse when protesters get arrested and tempers flare. Without question, there's a crisis in the Tarragon Woods, and the solutions are far from clear-cut.
JUVENILE FICTION • 216 pp • 5.25 x 7.75
ISBN 1-55039-154-2 • paper • $9.95
ages 8-13
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My cousin Noreen had a velvet painting of a horse in her room as a child. Actually, I think she had several but I remember this enormous, and tacky, rendition of a horse hung above her bed. She was part of that girl-horse phenomenon and Noreen read books about girls and their horses as quickly as a foal gets to its feet after birth. I was always intimidated by the great beasts but I think Noreen believed herself indestructible — she used to sneak into the church down the street and drink the holy water.
But that's another story and it fails to explain the general girl-horse phenomenon. I'm sure the 25 girls who submitted stories to a StableMates Horse Series (Sono Nis, $5.95) contest do not go around sneaking into churches, drinking holy water. They all love horses though, and a character in the next StableMates book by local writer Nikki Tate will be named after the contest winner, nine year old Yannic Wolfe of Vernon.
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The new series, in print only for the last few months, has found an eager audience. The first three books in the series all hit the B.C. Best-seller List for extended periods. The list is compiled weekly by the Association of Book Publishers of BC and based on sales in bookstores throughout the province. Author Tate, a Saanich Peninsula resident, continues to weave stories about Jessa, her pony Rebel, and her friend Cheryl with StableMates Four due out in September and five in November.
Judith Isabella, freelance journalist
The Islander, Victoria Times Colonist
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