Misty

Misty of Chincoteague

Rand McNally & Company, NY, 1947, illustrated by Wesley Dennis

The first in the Misty series, this tells the story of the Beebe children, Paul and Maureen, and the pony penning which takes place each year when the ponies, who live on the island of Assateague, are rounded up and driven to the neighbouring island of Chincoteague. The ponies are rounded up and then auctioned, and thanks to Marguerite Henry’s book, the event is now a big attraction.

In Misty, the children long for a pony of their own. They follow the wild mare Phantom, who has a foal, Misty. They rescue Phantom but have to let her go when she cannot settle. Misty, however, becomes the foundation of a line of ponies kept by the Beebes.

The book won a Newbery prize (Newbery being the American equivalent of the Carnegie prize: awarded by librarians). It is beautifully illustrated by Wesley Dennis.

Other editions

Misty of Chincoteague

Rand McNally & Company, NY., n.d., BCE, 157 pp.

This is a rather hard-to-find edition of the Misty story. It is published in a regular book size format with a brick cloth binding and a yellow line illustration on the cover of one of Wesley Dennis' illustrations from the regular edition. However, the illustrator of this book is Don Bolognese and the illustrations are all pen and ink sketches with a watercolor illustration of Misty (different than the Wesley Dennis one) on the dust jacket. This was not, as far as we know, issued in paperback.

There have been several paperback editions: the one to the left is the Armada Lions paperback.