The icicles have finally begun melting and falling off the eaves with great exciting cracks. The birds, which appear to share my dislike of the continuing presence of 16" of snow everywhere, responded with great excitement to my offering of moldy bread this morning. The breakfast crowd included the cursed robins, who have quite obviously quit the whole tiresome migration business and elected to remain here year-round as taunting non-harbingers of spring. All of which is to explain the posting of a review about a holiday-themed book which would on the face of it seem to be a bit late in the day. It has snow on the cover, it's going in.
The Christmas Pony
Sylvia Green, il. Sharon Scotland
2001, Scholastic
"Of course you can't have a pony for Christmas, Laura.We couldn't possibly afford one."Dad looked determined.
Poor old Dad.You know his determination is that of the doomed pony parent.The elderly neighbor who owns Mr. Crumbs is moving to Australia, and her aging palomino pony is scheduled to be retired to a horse rescue far away.But Laura doesn't want to lose her equine pal, and has rallied her brother Ben and her friends Emily and Sanjay to raise money to persuade her parents to adopt the pony instead.
Mr. Crumbs tossed his head, shaking his long mane, and blew gently through his nostrils.Laura couldn't imagine life without him.
The writing is very simple, the plot lacks urgency, but children's fundraising efforts are believable and sensible. The book seems aimed at children who are just past the beginner reader stage.
Horses
Mr. Crumbs - 18-year-old palomino pony
Other books
The Best Christmas Ever (cat)
The Best Dog In The World
Christmas Quackers (duck)
The Soft-Hearted Sheepdog
The Lonely Chick
The Christmas Wish (donkey)
Etc.
Green is English, and the while the book is non-specific about exactly where it's taking place, there is a vague, indescribable Englishness about it. This sort of thing always fascinates me about English-language books, even those which aren't deliberately trying to be generic enough to appeal to a wider audience. It's usually possible to realize from the writing alone that a writer is American or English or Canadian or Australian*. The slang, the choice of character names and, of course, the biases and prejudices we all enjoy. My favorite is the phrase "North America," which is almost always a big red (maple leafed) flag that you're currently enjoying the writing of a Canadian author.
* Yes, I realize I left out the Irish and the Scots, but it's a lot harder, generally, to make that distinction so I've lumped them in with the English.
The snow has stopped, but I'm still preoccupied with it since a) it's everywhere and b) I keep having to move it. So, a book set in Iceland, about that nation's native breed.
Horse Diaries: Elska
Catherine Hapka, il. Ruth Sanderson
2009, Random House
I was foaled in early summer, in a meadow dotted with flowers.My first memory was the feeling of the warm sun on my back.I did not know it then, but in summer in Iceland, the sun shines for more than twenty hours each day.My dam, Silfra, was on her feet within moments of my birth.She nudged at me with her soft muzzle.The scent of her surounded me and made me feel safe.
In Iceland in the year 1000, a grey foal is born.Her first steps soon move into the unique gait of her kind, the tolt, which she continues as her herd moves through its summer grazing.In the autumn, their human owners appear, and young Elska (whose name appears to translate to 'love') quickly becomes the favorite of the youngest daughter of the clan, Amma.When Elska is around 4, she's trained to be ridden and enjoys a happy season with Amma.But the beautiful and fast young mare attracts the attention of a clan chief, and Amma's father agrees to gift Elska to him as thanks for help in a land dispute.Elska's new owners are kind, but the horse isn't content.
But by the time the long, dim twilight was half over, I was growing restless.I thought of my familiar herd and wanted to be with them.I wanted to see Amma as well.I missed the musical sound of her voice and the way she always found the itchiest spots on my crest and withers.
How horse and girl are reunited makes for a nice, low-key story, and the tone throught is reminiscent of Black Beauty.Appropriately, a quote from the classic starts the book;
Oh! if people knew what a comfort to horses a light hand is...
A higher-quality series book, but not especially memorable.Lovely drawings throughout enhance the sometimes pedestrian writing. The setting makes for an interesting background, and it's very instructive about the breed. I never knew Icelandic Horses came in so many colors, for one thing.
Horses
Silfra - mare
Elska - silver dapple/grey filly
Tappi - pinto colt
Perta - mare
Haddingur - stallion
Hamur - roan colt
Leira - cremello filly
Tyrta - palomino filly
Irpa - mare
Jarpur
Other Books in Series
Bell's Star by Alison Hart, il. Ruth Sanderson(Morgan in 1850's Vermont)
Koda by Patricia Hermes, il. Ruth Sanderson (Quarter Horse in 1846 Missouri)
Maestro Petra by Jane Kendall, il. Ruth Sanderson (Lipizzanner in 1938 Austria)
Yet to be published (Oct. 26, 2010)
Golden Sun by Whitney Sanderson, il. Ruth Sanderson (Appaloosa, 1790 Oregon)
Other books by Author
Hapka appears to be a prolific author who's written many beginner reader books, often linked to movies such as National Treasure and The Dark Knight.She's also written some YA chick lit.Other horse-related writing include an I Can Read! series called Pony Scouts, books based on the horsey TV series Wildfire, and a novelization of the film Flicka.
I will just say that after three major snowstorms in four days it is still snowing.
Picture/Easy Reader books
Prolific illustrator Ruth Sanderson has a book coming out in September with well-known fantasy writer Jane Yolen.Random House will publish Hush, Little Horsie, a picture book, on September 28, 2010.
Random House is releasing Mary Pope Osborne's 1991 book, Moonhorse, illustrator S.M. Saelig, as a paperback.April 27, 2010.
Paddywack, a Step Into Reading book by Stephanie Spinner, will be released on April 27, 2010.
Juvenile Fiction
Whirlwind, the sequel to Alison Hart's Shadow Horse is coming out on May 25, 2010 (Random House)
Whispering Hope and Long Ride Home, the latest books in Marsha Hubler's Christian-themed Keystone Stables series, are due out this spring from Zondervan.
Rival Revenge, the latest in the Canterwood Crest series by Jessica Burkhart, came out January 26 from Simon & Schuster/Aladdin MIX.Sequels Home Sweet Drama is due out April 6, City Secrets on July 6, and Elite Ambition on September 14.
Heather Henson uses that most common of themes, a damaged kid and a damaged horse, in Dream Of Night, due out in May from Atheneum.
Diane Lee Wilson, author of Black Storm Comin' and Fire Horse, has a third horse-related book due out in April; Raven Speakin which a Viking chief's daughter flees a usurper intent on killing her beloved horse.
Susan Richards, the author of memoirs Chosen By A Horse and Chosen Forever, has a third horsey memoir due out on May 4. Saddledconcerns Richards' third horse, the memorable mare Georgia.
And, just for fun - Romance
Tame Horses, Wild Hearts from Alison Paige, wherein a woman running a riding camp falls for her bodyguard.Due from Samhain Publishing on March 2, 2010.
Juvenile Fiction - new in paperback
Chancey Of The Maury River by Gigi Amateau will be released in paperback on March 8, 2010 from Candlewick Press. (Check out the link for the new and quite different paperback cover. The cover above appeals more to me, despite the extreme shortness of the horse's neck.)
Firehorseby Diane Lee Wilson is due in paperback on July 6, 2010 (Simon & Schuster)
Show Ring Rogue
Patsey Gray, il. Sam Savitt
1963, Coward-McCann
Sheila's grown up middle-class amid the beauty of Hawaii, and her first touch of tragedy was a case of polio that's left her with a brace on one leg. The one exercise her doctor prescribes is the one she flatly refuses to consider; horseback riding is just too public and the reminders of how good she used to be just too painful. Fed up with her tantrums, her family ships her off to an old friend who trains show horses in California with orders to ride and get better. Furious and upset, Sheila's set to resist this until she meets the Rogue, a buckskin gelding whose horrific career as a picador's horse - working in the bullfighting world - has made him phobic about entering the show ring. With the helpless obsession of the horsey, Sheila falls hard for the Rogue. But can she convince the adults that the spooky, fearful horse can be safe for a rider with a handicap?
A beautiful look at a girl falling utterly in love with a horse, beyond reason and with no regard for the sense of it. The plot works nicely, the language is just right, and there's plenty of genuine horse feeling:
With a swinging walk he headed homeward through the woods, his back warm to sit on, shoulder muscles rippling, his mane swaying gently. Sheila couldn't resist reaching for it. As she had thought, it was silky, and his foretop that blew aside looked silky too. They were kind of dear and youngish on such a masculine creature. How a good grooming would improve him, she reflected. A brush, currycomb and rub rag, a bath and shampoo, greased hoofs, would make him truly gorgeous. Boldy she leaned sideways to catch glimpses of his black socks, then of his black mask. From up here she discovered another marking too, a slim black stripe from withers to tail. What amazing looks he had, added to personality! The longer Sheila rode him, the more elated she grew.
My only quibble with Gray is the lack of evocative description of landscapes. She does a much better job of interiors, but though most of her books are set in California, her few words on the world surround our heroines are not compelling. Interesting group of topics not often seen in horse fiction - trail riding classes, the mention of picadors, and a disabled heroine. Temporarily disabled, but still.
Horses Rogue - buckskin gelding, black dorsal stripe; used in trail class
Ink Spot - black equitation horse
Dapple - grey
About the Author
According to the dust jacket of The Flag Is Up, Gray lived on a 30-acre ranch outside San Francisco, and raised Appaloosas and Quarter Horses. She was married with 4 children, and began writing while recovering from a riding accident.
Other books Jumping Jack
Double Standards
Heads Up!
Galloping Gold
Challenger
Horse In Her Heart
Doggone Roan
Loco The Bronc
4-H Horse
Diving Horse
The Flag Is Up
The Mysterious Buckskin (as Virginia Clark)
Barefoot A Thousand Miles (dog)
Star series The Horse Trap
The Mysterious Buckskin
Star Bright
Star Lost
About the illustrator
1917-2000
Sam Savitt
Savitt wrote and illustrated dozens of books, and his portraits of horses and dogs are well-known. He lived on a farm in North Salem, New York, was married and had two children. He spent several years as the official artist for the U.S. Equestrian team. Several of his drawings are held at the National Sporting Library.
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.
* 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.
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