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Post by Claire on Nov 20, 2010 12:53:42 GMT 1
Hi all, I have just added a page on the website in which I will be regularly featuring new pony & horse books which have just been released (children and adult) and also the latest reprints of older books by Fidra, GGB, etc. The page will be updated regularly. newbooks.ponymadbooklovers.co.uk/I also thought we could have a thread dedicated to the same purpose so that we can let each other know if we spot a new horsy book or hear any news about upcoming releases and repints. I'll sticky the thread so it stays near the top and we can add stuff whenever we find out anything new.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 20, 2010 13:21:35 GMT 1
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Post by Claire on Nov 20, 2010 13:44:30 GMT 1
Thanks rosie, great timing by them, been waiting for yonks and then as soon as I do my new page they bring it out so I'll have to change it lol!
EDIT - just made a hasty update on the page to include A Stable for Jill.
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Post by susanb on Nov 20, 2010 15:20:59 GMT 1
I'm always on the lookout for new books/authors (especially the good ones!) Jane Smiley just came out with a sequel to her first YA novel, The Georges and the Jewels, called A Good Horsewww.bookdepository.com/book/9780375862298/A-Good-Horseif you haven't read the first yet, here it is: www.bookdepository.com/book/9780375862274/The-Georges-and-the-JewelsOn Wednesday, the National Book Awards were announced, and a horse book won the main (adult fiction) prize! Called The Lord of Misrule by Jaimy Gordon, it's a racetrack drama. Appears to be sold out on both Book Depository and Amazon.uk, but I expect it will be available again soon....from a small press, and it won the award only two or three days after it's official release. Meanwhile, here's a link to a US site so you can get a look at it! search.barnesandnoble.com/Lord-of-Misrule/Jaimy-Gordon/e/9780929701837/?itm=1&USRI=lord+of+misruleFor the much younger set, there is what looks like a sweet picture book out, called Everything But the Horse by Holly Hobbiewww.bookdepository.com/book/9780316070195/Everything-But-the-HorseThe links I did are all to hardcover editions, the Georges and the Jewels is also available in paperback now.
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Post by Claire on Nov 20, 2010 19:40:21 GMT 1
Thanks for those links susan. Its good that a horse story won an award, they so often are overlooked by awards committees. Have you read the first Jane Smiley one, I havent but it has had mixed reviews. BTW it seems to be called Nobody's Horse in the UK.
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Post by susanb on Nov 20, 2010 23:01:53 GMT 1
I have read the Georges and the Jewels (got it last year for Christmas), though I haven't red the sequel (which I just got for my birthday). Here's what I thought of GATJ:
Abby lives with her parents and an ever changing group of horses and ponies: the Georges (geldings) and the Jewels (fillys/mares).....thus named by Abby's father so they won't get attached to them, as they're trainers/dealers so the animals are all just passing through.
Abby isn't your typical "girl wants a pony" character, or even a "lets get into the horse dealing business" girl (a la The Horse Dealers by Pamela MacGregor-Morris): she's been training horses for her father since she was 8 years old...her situation reminds me most of Ruth's friend Peter from K.M. Peyton's The Team....this is what Peter's working childhood probably looked like from the inside.
Her situation, but not really her character, as she doesn't resent horses being sold on. Her father has, in general, a good eye for the diamond in the rough: he buys some pretty ratty looking horses very cheaply from Oklahoma, trucks them to California, after they're trained, fattened up, they're sold for a pretty nice profit. Abby loves riding and training, and is generally pretty happy to see the formerly neglected animals, now filled out, hooves tended too, and any behavioral/training issues sorted out, go on to good homes.
Sounds like a mushy happy love fest, doesn't it? Well, nothing is ever black and white. A few big problems confront Abby....her dad has perhaps made a rare mistake in buying the gelding she thinks of as Ornery George, a mistake he isn't going to admit making any time soon. He's also not going to be backing down in the fight he had with Abby's older brother Danny, which prompted Danny to move out of the house, drop out of school and go to work. Danny's not backing down either, all of which leaves Abby shouldering more of the training responsibilities. And then there is school, where a friend of a friend and the school's Big Four are in a knock down-drag out fight (over a boy Abby considers to be about the most boring human being she's ever met, which unfortunately doesn't mean she isn't going to get caught in the cross-fire). Last, but surprisingly least, are the smaller conflicts springing from Abby's parent's Evangelical faith and the modern (1960s) world.
This book has more detail on training (the good, the bad and the ugly) than any other work of fiction (adult or children's) that I've ever come across. It's got horses and a great jumping pony and a foal, and a girl who rides very well indeed. And yet, I don't know that you could call it a pony book at all. It's a slice of life for one thing, a bit of a girl's life...with very few black and white issues, and many shades of gray.
If I had to boil it down to just one thing, I guess it's about conflict.....whenever you let something; a difference of opinion, incompatible personalities, individuals with different goals, boil up into open conflict, a real fight, you may have winners, you will definitely have losers, and beyond doubt you will have wide gulfs between combatants that are difficult, even impossible, to bridge.
Anyway, that's my take on the book...I'd say worth checking out, if you're looking for a "think piece".
I can see why it wouldn't appeal to everyone, it's definitely not a regular pony book, but I thought it well done.
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Post by susanb on Nov 20, 2010 23:06:51 GMT 1
And speaking of reviews....I just got back from the bookstore (gathering my Christmas wishlist!). One of the books I posted a link for this morning, Everything But the Horse by Holly Hobbie was there. Now, I don't often give away the ending of a book, but this is a picture book, and given the nature of this forum (pony book lovers!) and the ending in question, I'm going to break that rule!
Girl moves to country. Lives in rural semi-farm type house...the family keeps a cow, a pig, geese and chickens. There's a stable for a horse, and she waaaaants one!!! She dreams about them. Draws them. Etc, etc. Finally, birthday morning comes! Her parents send her out to the barn for her surprise! She's soooo excited!!! It's here at last!!! She opens the barn door and.......a bicycle. And she's HAPPY! She rides the bicycle! She NAMES the bicycle!!!
Arrgggghhhhh!!!!!!!!!
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Post by garej on Nov 21, 2010 0:18:59 GMT 1
She opens the barn door and.......a bicycle. And she's HAPPY! She rides the bicycle! She NAMES the bicycle!!! Arrgggghhhhh!!!!!!!!! Perhaps the author is being realistic? Despite my parents having more than enough acreage to keep a pony when I was a kiddie (they own more now, but what they owned at the time was enough to keep a pony quite comfortably) and an old hen house was already which in reality looked more like a stable (it was built like a stable and had a bottom of a stable door already there, the only difference is that there was wooden bars across the top half instead of a door), the closest I got was owning a toy one. I did however, go through a phase of pretending that my bicycle was a pony rather than a plain old bicycle. I probably named the bicycle too, but I cant remember the name was now. So yep, if that happened to me, it could happen to any other kiddie.
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Post by susanb on Nov 21, 2010 1:15:25 GMT 1
If there had been a transition page even, going from "desperately wanting pony" to "totally ecstatic about bicycle", I would have been fine with it....but she literally races to the barn, expecting to find her dream come true, only to find a bike and.....nothing. Totally happy with the bike. As though the months of wanting a pony had never existed.
If she'd gulped down her disappointment as not to hurt her parent's feelings, and sort of transitioned over one or two pages to pretending the bike was a pony, it would have seemed more natural, but as it was it just seemed odd.
I dunno....maybe some children really are fickle like that? I never was, so maybe I'm not the best judge!
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Post by Claire on Nov 21, 2010 13:49:55 GMT 1
Girl moves to country. Lives in rural semi-farm type house...the family keeps a cow, a pig, geese and chickens. There's a stable for a horse, and she waaaaants one!!! She dreams about them. Draws them. Etc, etc. Finally, birthday morning comes! Her parents send her out to the barn for her surprise! She's soooo excited!!! It's here at last!!! She opens the barn door and.......a bicycle. And she's HAPPY! She rides the bicycle! She NAMES the bicycle!!! Arrgggghhhhh!!!!!!!!! I echo that Arghhh! That is cruelty to children!!!! Yes I guess as garej says its probably the reality of the situation but what sort of sadist parents would put it in the barn. And that kid is not normal. I would have had a strop! Maybe its a special book for parents to buy for kids who want ponies to try and wean them off them? BTW thanks v. much for the review of The Georges. If you don't mind I will link to it from my Jane Smiley webpage?
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Post by Deleted on Nov 21, 2010 14:35:19 GMT 1
Girl moves to country. Lives in rural semi-farm type house...the family keeps a cow, a pig, geese and chickens. There's a stable for a horse, and she waaaaants one!!! She dreams about them. Draws them. Etc, etc. Finally, birthday morning comes! Her parents send her out to the barn for her surprise! She's soooo excited!!! It's here at last!!! She opens the barn door and.......a bicycle. And she's HAPPY! She rides the bicycle! She NAMES the bicycle!!! Arrgggghhhhh!!!!!!!!! I echo that Arghhh! That is cruelty to children!!!! Slightly off topic but it reminds me of an episode in Follyfoot where Hazels father promises her a pony for her birthday if she is good. So she is the perfect child, until her birthday when she discovers her present isn't a pony but a hairbrush set instead. A HAIRBRUSH SET!!!
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Post by susanb on Nov 21, 2010 16:23:24 GMT 1
Giggle....I thought the same, and almost said it, but thought....hm....maybe I'm too much of a conspiracy theorist...if so, at least I know now that I'm not alone Re the Georges and Jewels review.....no problem, go ahead and link! Rosie.....a hairbrush set? That's even worse than a bicycle!!
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Post by Deleted on Nov 21, 2010 18:36:03 GMT 1
No wonder she went off the rails afterwards!
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Post by shadowhawke on Mar 7, 2011 4:36:17 GMT 1
I treated my bike as a pony... still do. Only riding I get to do. I also tend to think of my car as a horse.... I found Joey's Palomino Pal awhile back, sent it back to the used bookstore. Wasn't all that good. Joey lives in TN, poor family, wants a horse to be his pal.....
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