Gaby Goldsack
A writer of board books for children: as far as I know My Perfect Pony is the only
pony-
Gaby Goldsack: My Perfect Pony
Parragon Books: £4.99
Rating: «««
This is the story of Pepper the pony and his owner Lucy. It is a book with another agenda other than the joy of the story. In contrast to much Victorian children's literature, in which the moral was aimed at making you moderate your behaviour, there is a strand of modern children's literature which wants you to feel better about yourself. This one aims to bolster the self esteem of its infant reader by showing that it does not matter if you, the pony, are short and fat, and you can't jump, show or do gymkhana games often. What matters is that you don't throw a wobbly if you go past geese, or wave your hindleg at your child owner. That's all true, of course. What's not is the suggestion that you will still win in the end if you are a decent soul: would that it were so.
So, if I were still at the reading aloud stage, I would struggle to put this one across with any conviction (and I like to think I could put a picture book across with passion: my reading of Where's Spot? I like to think has few equals. "THERE'S Spot!"). Any infant listener to my reading of this book would also pick up my thinking "Oh ye gods, NOT ANOTHER ONE," when I reached the point where the Great White Horse takes the pony hero Pepper on a flight full of learning opportunities. I have written about the invasion of the pony story by the fantastic before, but its creeping into books for the youngest was an unknown to me until now
It's a reasonably good looking book though: the illustrations aren't too cutesome, though in some pictures illustrator Michelle White has some ponies' hocks flexing normally, and some á la Jumbo.
