Primary Age

So, much to my surprise, Linda Chapman was our favourite in this section. It would be interesting to see what she could do if she tried something for the older market.

 

Posted by Jane at 06:03 2 comments

Labels: Elizabeth Lindsay, Jenny Oldfield, Linda Chapman

Posted by Jane at 02:37 1 comments

Labels: BAFAB

Sexism in pony books

Jessie Haas is writing a book about pony books (it will be published in 2009 and is, at the moment, called Horse Crazy), about which we've been corresponding, and she told me recently about a book she read called The Ginger Horse by Maureen Daly, which I've never read, but "has a girl hitting her teen years and starting to think that her boy friend really is smarter and stronger and more important" (quote from Jessie).

 

That started me thinking about sexist attitudes in pony books. I suppose one of the reasons pony books are so very popular with girls is that they show girls as strong and capable, or as equal partners with boys. I'm going to pick the books I've read recently as examples (though I may be self-selecting here, as I've been reading titles by authors I already knew I liked). So, Veronica Westlake's The Mug's Game has a heroine who is initially a bit of a wimp being initiated by the twin girls with whom she goes to live into a country life which is something of a walk on the wild side. The boy character is an elder brother intent on writing a play, who is seen as eccentric but in an entirely understandable way. Here, the mother is the one with the high-powered job, who keeps the household going.

 

Next came Cecilia Knowle's Hippo, a Welsh Cob. This has a good mix of male and female characters, with never a hint that one might be better than the other. The only villains of the pieces are so because they are thoughtless.

 

Josephine Pullein-Thompson's Six Ponies has a character who is extraordinarily dismissive of girls; but he is one of the book's villains and JPT obviously disapproves of him. JPT is unusual in having a virtually equal distribution of male and female characters, and what sex you are has absolutely no bearing on how well you do with your horse.

 

I suppose one really glaring example of stereotyping comes in Pony Jobs for Jill. Until this point, Jill has wanted to be a Matron of an orphanage, run a stable, work for Captain Cholly-Sawcutt and be an MHF. Although she obviously becomes a writer as she describes herself as the author of the books, in what always struck me as a bizarre turn, after trying various horsey jobs, she and Ann go off to do secretarial courses. I am not decrying secretarial courses: I did one myself after university when it soon became plain that I needed a few practical skills as well as the ability to argue about Alexander the Great.

The thing that really made the Jill episode stick in my craw, I suppose, is that it's one of the few times you sense Ruby Ferguson's authorial voice coming through. It is so absolutely what your mother or grandmother are going to recommend what you, a horsey girl, do, and it doesn't ring true with Jill's character as we know it. I know she says she's going to be secretary to the Prime Minister, but why not be PM herself?

Posted by Jane at 02:06 7 comments

Labels: sexism pony books Jill

Thursday, 3 April 2008

Pony Club Diaries and A Pony Called Magic

School holidays have started here (I could fulminate about the strangeness of the "standard school year" with which we are now cursed, and its divorce from Easter, but won't) so my fellow critic has been released from the servitude of vicious maths tests and is now here ready to start reviewing.

 

We're going to start with books aimed at those who are starting to read for themselves, or are reasonably confident readers.

 

 

Magic and the Best Day, by Sheryn Dee

Happy Cat Books, £3.99

 

Aimed at children of around 5 and upwards, this book contains two short stories about Magic and Jessie. It s an Australian series about Jessie, who is 7 and lives on an Australian sheep station. For her seventh birthday Jessie is given Magic the pony, and the book contains two short stories about them and the farm. The first, Magic and the Best Day, is about the great day when Jessie is given Magic. Her parents teach her to tack him up and groom him, and Jessie has her first ride. A Big Day Out has Jessie and Magic going on an illicit ride out, and Jessie loses Magic and herself. This is a story with a moral - no going off anywhere without asking Mum and Dad - but it doesn't clobber the reader with good behaviour rules too hard.

 

These are gentle stories for reading before bed; and we both liked them. They have a lot of charm and some gentle humour, and farm and family life is nicely observed. Jessie, in these stories at least, is a remarkably equable child: bright and sunny all the time, but these are comfortable stories, not meant to challenge and not the worse for that.

 

What does let them down is their see-sawing between accuracy and the unbelievable in a way that s quite breathtaking. Tacking up Magic is well and carefully described, but learning to trot, and indeed ride, is apparently instant. The illustrations suffer from the same bizarre mixture of accuracy and oddity, so that on one page you have an accurate picture of the underside of a horse s hoof, and on the next a pony whose legs look as if they need a very long session with the hose. Depending on what sort of parent you are, these will either drive you demented and leave your child pleading with you to shut up and get on with the story, or you will swallow nobly and carry on, enjoying what is a sweet and gentle read.

 

 

 

Pony Camp Diaries: Kelly McKain

Stripes Publishing, 2007. £3.99

A series: so far there are 5 books

Kelly McKain's website

 

A homegrown series, it s written in diary form, and each book is about the adventures of one of the girls who on holiday at Sunnyside Stables, where they have a pony allotted to them for the week. It's aimed, we thought, at children of 8 upwards - certainly primary age and no older.

 

We read the first in the series, Sophie and Shine. Sophie doesn't have a pony of her own, and is given Shine to look after for the week. The other campers are all girls, and they have the usual parade of lessons, outings and an end-of-camp gymkhana, plus a well pitched mystery.

 

What happens with the ponies is good and accurate (which is more than can be said for the illustrations). We disagreed about the way the technical bits are described. Miranda said "if you weren't horsey, you wouldn't have a clue about what was going on. If you're not horsey, how are you supposed to know what transitions and dressage are?" I thought Kelly McKain had wisely resisted the temptation to explain what would be incomprehensible to a non-rider and clutter up the story. The one thing that did prickle at me was the letter from the stable owner that starts the whole thing off. "Your pony can't wait to meet you!" it says. Most of the riding school ponies I've known, when I led them out to greet their bumpety beginner, were plainly thinking "Oh gawd, here we go again."

 

Miranda liked the style in which it was written, and the diary format. For her the style is normal. For her fussy mama, it was plain irritating, and at one point I was so infuriated by the relentless use of the exclamation mark I was reduced to counting them to see if there were any pages on which they'd been missed out. I think my daughter was rather more taken by the book than her comment here would suggest.  It s not something I d pick up again  well, I would, but I d only pick it up if there was nothing else to read. So, our verdict. Well, I'd agree with Miranda. It's a good enough read, but is there something about the characters that grabs you, that gives you that sense that yes, you know how this feels, and you want more? No.

Posted by Jane at 05:32 1 comments

Labels: Kellly McKain, Sheryn Dee

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There are some good books around for primary age children, as well as some horrors.  As an adult buying for a child, do not be put off by some of the covers (I’ll be honest:  most of the covers).  The majority give the impression that all that is within is a cutesy My Little Pony world, but a lot of them are better than that.  If you simply can’t do it, and want a straight-down-the-line, gorgeous, traditional cover, go for Jessie Haas.  Her American publishers haven’t fallen prey to the mania most British publishers have for covering their books with glitter; flowers; bubbles; purple and of course pink.  And terribly drawn horses.