Wednesday, August 26, 2026

"Hope County Fair" by Laurie Salisbury

About this book:

  “Ten-year-old Emma and her younger brother Jack have been invited back to their Grandparents for the summer. Only this time they have to fly. Jack is hoping it will provide a way of escape. But, Emma is left torn between her fear of flying and the opportunity to see her beloved Bart. If they make it to Lander they'll have to work hard to get their horses and their hearts ready for the fair. Hope County Fair is a sweet trot through the hearts and lives of our four friends Beth, Ben, Emma, and Jack. Each is hoping to show well at the fair. Each will have to allow God to help them work through the obstacles that get in their way.”


Series: Book #3 in the “He Reigns” series. Reviews of Book #1 Here and Book #2 Here!


Spiritual Content- Each chapter starts with a Scripture that is also usually discussed in the chapter as well; In a bonus chapter at the end of the book, the author shares about Jesus and a prayer to pray to welcome Him into your heart; Scriptures are quoted, mentioned, prayed, read, discussed, remembered, & thought over; Prayers & Praising God; Witnessing to someone & talking to that person about God answering prayers; Talks about God, Jesus, trusting Him, praying, & God answering prayers; Most ‘H’s are not capital when referring to God; Emma doesn’t like to pray out loud and admires that Beth can do that; Emma tries to pray out loud once, but gets red in the face and starts to cry because she can’t do it; Beth doesn’t like the idea of God taking away a family member (due to a move) and thinks “What did he need them for? Didn’t he have everything anyway?”; Many mentions of God, Jesus, prayers, praying, & answered prayers; Mentions of Bibles & Bible reading; A few mentions of Christians; A mention of church. 
 

Negative Content- Minor cussing including: a ‘stupid’; A bit of eye rolling; A few scenes of siblings bickering, snapping, and/or ignoring the other; Jack teases Emma about her fear of airplanes (to the point it makes her cry and continues despite her tears; Later, he is sorry for teasing her and plans to apologize to her); Jack overhears his friends say they don’t want to play with him any more because he is always talking about his horse, so Jack calls them “jerks!” and “losers!” when upset (he feels a twinge of guilt because he knows he shouldn’t call others names and his mom would be disappointed in his words); Jack is mad at his friends for a while, *Spoiler* but at the end, prays for forgiveness for saying mean things about them and comes up with a plan to talk to his friends *End of Spoiler*; Beth is hurt by a couple other girls not wanting anything to do with her (she tells Emma that one of the girls thinks she’s better than Beth because she’s rich and is a snob, but Beth’s mother overhears her comments and reprimands her for talking that way about one of God’s creations; When something bad happens, Beth takes back her mean words and prays for forgiveness); Emma wants to be more confident like Beth since she thinks she is always afraid of everything (unlike Beth); One of the kids gets lost from the others during the fair & there’s some intense emotions with concern for the boy being missing and fear of being punished by the adults (the sibling is afraid she’ll be in trouble with the adults for not keeping a better eye on her brother); Mentions of injuries, a boy being kicked by a horse (in the head), & a concussion; A few mentions of possible plane crashes or a plane catching on fire; A mention of jealousy; 
             *Note: Jack and Emma both have iPads/tablets & Jack goes on YouTube to watch videos of goat tying (without adult supervision noted); A couple mentions of social media platforms/websites (YouTube & Skype).
 
 
Sexual Content- N/A.
 
-Emma Bolton, age 10
-Jackson “Jack” Warren Bolton, age 9
-Elizabeth “Beth” Holden Chamberlain, age 10
-Ben Chamberlain, age 10
                                    P.O.V. switches between them 
                                                        149 pages
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Pre Teens- 

New Teens- 

Early High School Teens- 

Older High School Teens- 

My personal Rating- 

I wasn’t sure how the rest of this series would go after reading Book 2 because it followed a different sibling set compared to the first book. In this third book, both brother-and-sister duos meet and become friends! So, that was a neat surprise as I was reading because I thought it was only going to be about Emma and Jack again. I will note that their POV switches between the four of them often within a chapter, so I had to pay close attention to their names as they can easily get mixed up—especially as they are learning similar lessons and Scriptures!

 

There were some formatting errors, missing punctuation, and typos that I noticed in this book, but I don’t think a younger reader would notice them too much. I think the characters’ last names all changed as well in this book—that or their middle names’ sound like last names.

 

 

See y’all on Friday with a new review! 



*BFCG may (Read the review to see) recommend this book by this author. It does not mean I recommend all the books by this author.

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