Thick as Thieves #hsreviews
Here’s a review you’re a bit more familiar with from me, a book review! This latest book review happens to be titled Thick as Thieves from Circle C Milestones.
This is the first book in a new series(there are two previous series based on our main character as a younger girl) based on the life and adventures of Andrea Carter(Andi for short). Andi lives on Circle C Ranch which is one of the largest cattle ranches in the area. She’s 14 years old and on the cusp of womanhood which always brings for a good book with excitement! The book is a work of historical fiction based in the 1880’s.
The book is geared towards ages 12 and above. After saying that I also have to say that my 10 year old daughter read this on her own. The minute it arrived she and the book disappeared to her bed until she was forced to surface to do her chores. She’s a bit of a bookworm like me.
I loved listening to my daughter tell me about the book. She was so excited that her verbal report did not go all in chronological order, but she still hit the main points! As we live on a farm(not a ranch sadly) and we do have horses as well it made the book a bit more real to her.
Andi has a special horse. Her name is Taffy and she is a palomino. The book starts by letting us know that Taffy is pregnant and going to foal. The surprise comes when she has twins instead of a single!! For anyone that is not a horse person this is not a common occurrence. I had one mare who foaled twins, but she lost BOTH of them. It’s very hard for them to do this though not impossible which makes it so special in the book. Anyway, back to the book. Andi is surprised by her mare foaling twins.
The first problem we really encounter is school. Andi doesn’t really appreciate school. School takes her off the ranch and away from her horses. But it gets worse when a new girl comes to school. No one wants to be friends with the new girl. She doesn’t have good hygiene and is being raised by her less than nice brothers. Andi doesn’t like her. Andi has problems with her, but then something changes. Andi decides to be nice to Macy and show her the love of Christ. Macy can tell a difference in Andi and the way she and her family behave, she can also attribute this to them being Christians. What a great witness and a great example for our young people reading this book!!
The real troubles begin with cattle rustlers and then Andi’s two young foals that she’s training are stolen! The rustlers aren’t just rustling cattle anymore! Andi is determined to get her horses back, but at what cost? Will she find them? Who is responsible for the rustling? And what does the deadly canyon have to do with it? Lots of fun and adventures to be had in this book and great for the whole family.
As I just mentioned this book is a good read aloud book as well as appropriate for anyone ages 12 and over per the author’s site. My 10 year old read this well and enjoyed it.
The fact that our author Susan K Marlow wrote this from a Christian perspective makes it go up the list of books that I consider good for reading. I love that my kids enjoy reading but I also want to make sure that they are reading materials that are going to help enrich their minds and not just fill them up with useless information.
Another selling point when you’re the homeschool parent(or at least me) is that there is a downloadable study guide to go with Thick as Thieves. So you’re not just having your child read. You’re making sure they comprehend and also doing a bit of a Bible lesson plus some history lessons as well. I’m all about multi-tasking and getting lots of subjects all rolled up into one. It also contains vocabulary words. My daughter knew most of them but she also has grown up on a farm around horses and also reenacting the Civil War so she’s been reliving a time period of the 1860’s which isn’t as far from the 1880’s as we are today!
Interested in learning more about Andi and her adventures? First take a look at what everyone else thought of Thick as Thieves by checking out the Crew Reviews on our main blog. Then check out the Circle C Milestones on Facebook and Twitter. The first two series are about Andi as well but do not have to be read before you can enjoy this book.
susan
Thank you, Erin (and your DD) for taking the time to read and enthusiastically review Thick as Thieves. I LOVE that you mentioned your mare foaling twins. At what point did she lose them? Did you already know she was carrying twins at the time, or was it a horrible surprise?
I wasn’t completely sure of this rare topic, so I sent the first 2 chapters to a homeschooling friend of mine, whose son-in-law is a Texas rancher. I figured that would give it the reality check it needed. He said it was “great,” (a man of few words, LOL) so I felt confident that–although I do realize how rare the situation is–I could present it in a believable way. (And watching YouTube videos assured me that it is, indeed, not an impossibility).
My experience is limited to birthing lambs and kids–some with tragic endings. This farm-life is fraught with tragedy (I won’t relate how we botched our first lamb’s tail docking *shiver*).
At any rate, our DD did have a horse, and she had much fun with her mare, Panda (whom I named Andi’s sister Melinda’s horse after). I like chickens best. Easy come; easy go. 🙂
Again, thanks for the fun review. I’m so enjoying peeking into all the Crew’s lives!
Susan.
Erin S.
My poor mare lost the first one a week before we thought she was due and we didn’t know she was having twins! Two weeks later she started having the second one! Imagine our shock! We had to have the vet out as she had complications. Both were stillborn. I think it’s a great thing to have in your book and my daughter definitely loved reading about it.
We have sheep and goats too! Love my newborns! We sheared and docked tails just last night. 🙂
Riding has started again this spring and the mare that our children ride is named Boggs. She’s an old cow horse who will test me and my husband but be as good as gold for the kids.
We enjoyed reading the book as a family and my daughter can’t wait to get the rest of the books to find out what happens next! Thanks for stopping by!