Saige is obsessed with art and somehow manages to forget that her school won't have art that year. They only have enough money to have art OR music, not both, and it's a music year.
The first conflict comes when Saige is upset over not art and her best friend Tessa is happy because she gets music. She and her new friend Dylan went to music camp over summer and have come back super close and even more obsessed. Tessa is not the best friend in this book. She's not a complete ass, but she lets Dylan control her too much, saying she has to practice all the time if she wants to be good. Sure, practice is important, but you need to balance that with an actual life, too. You're like freakin' ten.
Saige finds solace on her grandmother's ranch. Mimi is a professional painter who raises Spanish Barb horses. So we've got a bunch of art stuff and a bunch of horse stuff going on.
Saige meets Gabi, a new student in their class, and those two bond over a love of art, horses and dogs. Gabi is good at training both types of animals.
There's going to be an arts fundraiser to help the school earn money for an after school art class and Mimi wants Saige to lead the parade on her old parade horse, Picasso. So Saige begins practicing for that, while Mimi works on her old trick act. Then Mimi ends up tripping over her dog while he's chasing the new kitten that was dumped off at the ranch. Active Mimi ends up in the hospital with a couple broken bones, including her painting wrist.
Saige is upset about this and then left to her own devices with Picasso. She and Gabi have the brainstorm to create a new act where he does simple tricks like nodding, making a silly "duh" face and even painting.
I probably don't have to tell you that everything turns out a big success. That's the way these tend to go.
In the second book, Saige is still without an art class and she's not happy about it. Things aren't moving fast enough for her.
She ends up working with Mimi and her old art teacher from last year to start using the art room in the rehab center where Mimi is. This is fun, but not enough.
So she gets the idea to stage a minor protest. The kids in school all wear beige one day to show how colorless their lives are without art. Saige survives leading a press conference and handling questions from reporters.
She's also dealing with training one of Mimi's younger horses, a mare named Georgia. As she's falling in love with her, Mimi says it's time for the horse to have a new owner. Jumping to conclusions, Saige assumes she's selling her and is depressed for a good chunk of the book. Nah, turns out Mimi gives the horse to Saige as a birthday present at the end.
Saige is a really likeable character. Her horse love and red hair almost make her a modern day Felicity, but she lacks Felicity's ballsiness. She's likeable anyway though. Not one of my big favorites, but I do like her a lot. Gabi is also a good character. Tessa and Dylan I have mixed feelings about. Dylan turns out okay by the end of the second book, but neither of them is exactly my favorite of the secondary cast. Saige's parents are okay. Her dad is a balloonist, which is really interesting, but neither is very present in the books. Mimi is the main adult and she's cool. Luis, her neighbor and fellow artist, is also awesome. It's nice to have a stronger adult male character for once. There really aren't a lot. So yeah, Saige's books are good. Not the best, but far from the worst. A solid addition to the line.
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