Lovers of horse stories will adore the Adventures in Green Apple Acres book series by CARACYN Publishing, LLC. Books 1-5 in the series are currently available for $18.99 each. Each story is filled with wonderful adventures of your favorite farm friends.  Geared toward ages 8-12, these are perfect for your reader to use independently or to read aloud together as a family. Through several short stories in each book, humans and animals alike work together to solve problems on subjects such as bullying, lying, and respecting others. Many of the books also feature a non-profit organization that aligns with that particular story’s theme.  

All the books in the Adventures in Green Apple Acres series feature several short stories.  In Book One, you can learn about a horse named Shiloh and a barn mouse, Loco and their friendship. Bon-Bon’s Big Ears is a cute short story and will have your children appreciating their features that make them unique.  Wolfie, the Most Beautiful Pony in the World is also a sweet story of appreciating your features and inner and outer beauty.  Glory Beatrice to the Rescue is a little more of a serious story about the reality of animal abuse.

In Book Two, Raven and Theo are barn cats that learn about giving from their heart.  Cocoa’s Sweet Life is also about animal abuse and not judging others.  Paddy O’Berry at Your Service teaches about overcoming your fears and moving forward to conquer things during life.  Mr. Mottle Hops to a New Home in helping others be a good friend.  Riff the Bully Learns a New Tune by learning to respect others after he, himself is bullied.

Continuing through Book Three, you’ll enjoy short stories such as Tikki’s Shining Star, Skipper’s Coat of Many Colors, O Christmas Tree, Soltee’s Silent Night, and Merrilee’s Joy to the Whole World.  Book Three celebrates Christmas on the farm with family traditions, Christmas miracles, special gifts, helping others, and more.  

Adventures in Green Apple Acres Book Four journeys on throughout the farm and brings in animal characters named Gizmo, Minuet and Mozart, Tinker, Valley Girl, and Jasper.  Their experiences help to teach about friendship, adventure, self-esteem, jealousy, and lying.  

Finally, Book Five introduces Smokey, Ghost the cat, Bumberlenicky the donkey, Blackjack Cowboy, and Syd the stallion.  Smokey learns to ask for help to achieve his dreams, which is wonderful lesson for children to learn.  It’s definitely okay to ask for help when we need it!  Bumberlenicky also learns that it’s okay to be different when he can’t bray like a normal donkey.  

My children loved listening along and independently reading the Adventures in Green Apply Acres books. Although we greatly enjoyed all of the books, our favorite story is in book four and is called Valley Girl. This story teaches about jealousy. In this story, a show horse, Valley Girl, appears to be treated better than all the other horses. Another horse, Buck, gets mad and wonders why she deserves all the special attention. Valley Girl tells him about how she is made to do what her rider wants without it being her own choice, about waking early for shows, and complains of her bland feed that the others had envied thinking it was better. In the end they both make up and are friends again.  

Interactive reader questions are included at the end of each story. This is a great way to learn how to handle tough subjects safely and have open conversations with your children. Some subjects are a bit heavier than others, but all are age appropriate. To finish out the stories are “Apple Nuggets from Dee Dee”, the barn owner.  The “Apple Nuggets” discuss the moral of the story.  “Seeds of Wisdom” are quotes that go along with the moral. ”AppleNiblets” are questions about relating to the story characters or learning more about the moral in the story.

I definitely recommend checking out these books for your children in the 8-12 year age range. Our family is eagerly looking forward to finding out if there will be more in this series.  

-Product review by Erin Haag, The Old Schoolhouse® Magazine, LLC, July, 2018