Tuesday, February 2, 2010

My Pony (2003)

In a nod to last month's Caldecott awards to the artists of the best American picture book of 2009, a look at a picture book from Susan Jeffers, 1974 Caldecott Honor winner for Three Jovial Huntsmen.*


My Pony

Susan Jeffers, author and illustrator

2003, Hyperion Books for Children


I want a pony. I want a pony more than anything else in the world.


A little girl wants a pony; her parents tell her they can't get her one, and she dreams every night of a dapple gray mare who comes and takes her for magical rides.



A very simple picture book showing the power of the horseless child's passionate desire, constant fantasy and total belief. Gorgeous.


About the author

1942-

Author's Website


Other books (author/illustrator)

All The Pretty Horses

My Chincoteague Pony


Other books (illustrator)

Black Beauty - Sharon Lerner adaptation


Dogs

The McDuff series

Lassie Come Home - with Rosemary Wells


Links

Disney-Hyperion Books

Through The Magic Door website - section about Jeffers


Link - audio

Teachers for a New Era - UConn: Interview with Susan Jeffers



* Jeffers' Caldecott-winning book was based on an old children's rhyme and not, as I first thought, on an even older song which was the source of another book titled Three Jovial Huntsmen. This second, older book was illustrated by Randolph Caldecott, the 19th century English illustrator of children's books who the American awards are named after. The huntsmen in Caldecott's version are foxhunters; the ones in Jeffers' are portly guys on foot.

4 comments:

Newsed6 said...

What a great blog! I just found it this morning while looking for information on Alice O'Connell.

I have a few horse books by Ruby Ferguson, an English horse-writing author, which I'd love to see reviewed here.

Also, English author Diana Pullein-Thompson.

Thanks for your reviews!

Marcia

Sarah said...

Thank you for the kind words! I haven't reviewed many English books, largely because there are already people and blogs doing such a lovely job of it already, but I'll mix in some more in the future.

Newsed6 said...

I always have multiple windows up on Firefox, so I can come back later and read whatever it is I just found. I'm keeping your blog up, reading one post a day. I love horse books and grew up (in South Florida) loving Walter Farley's Black Stallion series. Dog books too (collies in Albert Payson Terhune's volumes and Irish setters in Jim Kjelgaard's).

Do you have horses? We live in Virginia, not exactly in horse country but close, and my 17-year-old daughter and I share a love of horses that bonds us like glue, although she's not a horse reader like me.

Thanks for the reviews!

Sarah said...

Hi,

I'm glad you're enjoying the blog! I have another one about dog books, Hounds In Print, at http://houndsinprint.blogspot.com/ which I am much worse about updating. I also loved Terhune and his collies, and Kjelgaard's setters. No horses yet. My horse time is confined to books and sessions at a riding school, where I can never decide which is better, riding or grooming.

Since you're in Virginia, I assume this crazy snow has hit you hard. If you've read the blog recently, you'll see I've been muttering about the snowpocalpse, but we're a little better equipped to cope with this in NJ than poor Virginia. Hope you're okay!