Ponymadbooklovers Blog

New authors added

2012-01-26T06:01:00.000-08:00

Hi all, a run-down of some of the authors added in the last few weeks. I am not adding as many at the moment due to updating the existing author pages. However if you feel I have missed out one of your favs please let me know and I will add them asap:

JAQUELYN BERRILL
MARY GRAHAM BONNER
MIES BOUHUYS
ALEA BUSHHARDT
MARGARET CHITTENDEN
MARION CROOK
CHRISTINE FORSYTHE
LAURA HESSE
PETER McPHEE
EDNA SMITH MAKERNEY
LORD MOTTISTONE
MAGDALEN NABB
ALISON PRINCE
JOCELYN REEKIE
HOLLY WEBB
JANET M WHYTE
TAMARA L WILLIAMS

Check out these and all other authors here

New authors added

2011-08-02T05:38:00.000-07:00

Latest new authors added to the site include:

MARY ADRIAN
MATT ARMSTRONG
LYNN AVERY
JOYCE BARKHOUSE
RORY BARNES
LEILA BERG
WALLACE BLUE
ANNE BROOKSBANK
JOANNE HOPPE
JUDITH O'NEILL
STELLA SAMMON
MONA SANDLER
E. F. STUCLEY
SHEENA WILKINSON

For more information please visit the book and author info page on the website

New authors added

2011-06-07T13:28:00.001-07:00

Just a handful added lately, due to being busy with my sales website:

BORDEN DEAL

HEINRICH MARIA DENNEBORG

STEVEN FARLEY

ESTELLE GREY

ALAN C. JENKINS

LILIAN MOORE

SALLY FARRELL ODGERS

POPPY SHIRE

FRANCES WILBUR

More info about all of these on the book info page

New Squirrel Books sales website plus 10% off books!

2011-05-26T07:15:00.000-07:00

After a longish period of ill health, I have finally got my book-selling business up and running again. I have updated the sales website and given it a facelift. The pony books that I have been previously selling on the ponymadbooklovers website are now available on my sales website www.squirrelbooks.co.uk along with other children's non-pony books such as Enid Blyton, animal stories, ballet stories and adventures.

As a welcome back bonus I am giving a 10% discount to all readers of the blog. To take advantage of the offer please add the code NEW831 in the promotional code box on the on-line order form. The offer ends on 31st August 2011 and includes any item for sale on the website.

To visit the website and browse or buy books please go to Squirrel Books

Latest authors added to website

2011-04-13T05:32:00.000-07:00

A rundown of the latest authors added to the website:

NED ACKERMAN
ANDY ADAMS
JANET ASHTON
JENNIFER AUSTIN
CARIN GREENBERG BAKER
BIANCA BRADBURY
MEBANE BURGWYN
SOPHY BURNHAM
KATHARINE BURT
MARY CALHOUN
BARBARA CAMPBELL
JULIE CAMPBELL
RUSSELL GORDON CARTER
MARGARET CLARK
ANN NOLAN CLARK
STEPHEN COSGROVE
HELEN DICKSON
COLEEN HUBBARD
EUGENE LUMBERS
JAHNNA N. MALCOLM
ANN M. MARTIN
FRANK GEE PATCHIN
SUSAN SAUNDERS
COLIN THIELE
MARK TWAIN

Info on all these can be found on the author and book info page

I have also added a new pony library to the relevant section - The Treasured Horses Collection - this is a fairly modern USA pony library published in the 1990s.

Latest authors added

2011-03-06T03:54:00.000-08:00

Authors added to the website in the last few weeks include:

NAN HAYDEN AGLE
REECE FELL ALSOP
JUDY ANDREKSON
NED ANDREWS
ELIZABETH BAKER
HANS BAUMANN
JACK BECHDOLT
KAREN BENDICK
HOFFMAN BIRNEY
STEPHEN & JANET BLY
EULALIA BOURNE
IRENE BRADY
MARY GRANT BRUCE
URSULA BRUNS
ELEANOR CLYMER
MARY COLVILLE
JANET DAILEY
ELIZABETH DALE
VIVIAN DUBROVIN
EMILY EDWARDS
ETHELIND FEARON
LOGAN FORSTER
BRUCE GRANT
ANNE BOSWORTH GREENE
DIANA HALLAM
CAPTAIN J. E. HANCE
ELIZABETH HARROVER JOHNSON
ROBERT HARTMAN
FLORENCE HAYES
VIOLET HEATHCOTE
ELEANOR HOFFMANN
DEBORAH KENT
MARIANNE MACDONALD
ALAN MARSHALL
JEANNE MELLIN
BARLOW MEYERS
EUGENIA MILLER
RUTH NULTON MOORE
LINDA NEWBERY
OLIVE NORTON
VIRGINIA ORMSBY
PATRICIA MILES MARTIN
HELGA SANDBURG
JOHN SMYTH
SIEGFRIED STANDER

You can check these out on the author information pages

I have also added pages for the Breyer Stablemates and the Perfect Tales for Pony Lovers series

Jane Ayres - Author Interview

2011-02-22T11:23:00.000-08:00

Many thanks to author Jane Ayres who has kindly agreed to do an interview for the ponymadbooklovers blog. Jane is the author of a number of pony books including The Great Horse Rescue, Gallery of Horses and the Mattie series.

Hello Jane and thanks for talking to us!

Can you remember what made you fall in love with horses?

No, but I have always loved horses. I do think they are especially beautiful and inspiring creatures.

What were your favourite pony books and authors as a child? Do you have an all time favourite pony story?

I loved them all and luckily we were spoilt for choice in the 70s! I enjoyed the Pullein Thompson sisters stories and still have most of my pony books in a huge box under the bed! I really liked Jago by Hazel M Peel.

Do you still read pony books?

Yes, when I get the time. The most recent books I read were from the Heartlands series.

What is the best book you have read recently (horse-related or otherwise)?

The last (non-horsey) novel I read was Framed by Frank Cottrell Boyce, a fabulous book which appeals to children and adults.

Did you always want to be a writer?

Yes.

How did you become an author and what was your first published work?

I had my first short story published when I was 14. It was called Dream Pony and was about a psycho show pony that attacks another pony at a show! It was published in Pony World magazine (no longer exists) and I was paid £10! That was the start. I kept writing pony stories and then serials, and when I was in my twenties I was lucky enough to be taken on by my wonderful agent, The Luithlen Agency after which I produced a collection of short stories called Horses in the Gallery for Collins Armada. And I’ve just kept going ever since.

Do you write any books other than pony stories. If so what?

I’ve written poems, articles and short stories on a range of topics. I also wrote a book for Stabenfeldt called Coming Home which was about 2 Norwegian Forest cats.

Are any of the horses and ponies in your books based on real life horses you have known?

Yes, lots, ranging from Binky, the little dapple grey I rode as a child who would bolt and then stop dead, shooting you over his head, to enormous bay Soames, my favourite riding school horse, who taught me how to do smoother transitions.

Do you have a favourite amongst your books, and/or a favourite character?

Transitions is probably the book I am most happy with. But I also enjoyed writing the character of Matty in the Matty series as she is fun to be.

Do you have any other books due to be published in the near future? Or are you working on one?

Last Chance Horse comes out in March (Stabenfeldt) and includes the US (not UK though). I’m now thinking about ideas for the next book.

How do you feel about the fact that most of your pony books are published outside of the UK?

I do wish that the books were published in the UK too.

Do you think that British publishers are ‘anti-pony book’ and if so do you have any explanations for this?

I don’t think they are anti, but it is a shame that there isn’t the huge pony book market here that existed when I was a teenager over 30 years ago.

Do you agree that pony books provide good role models for children, in particular girls, and if so why do you think this is?

I think they can do but it depends on the book.

You have written both traditional pony stories and some with fantasy elements.

Do you think that fantasy is somewhat taking over pony books, and indeed children’s books in general?

I couldn’t really say as I have not read enough, but fantasy is certainly very popular right now, especially vampire stories. I don’t think that’s bad though.

Do you have a favourite past-time (other than books and animals!)?

I love hula hooping! I go to a weekly class and have 2 hoops and know a few tricks.

Do you have any horses or other pets of your own?

Not at present. I used to have an amazing silver tabby called Biffa who we sadly lost when he was only 6 months old. I also owned a Welsh cob mare called Mellyn for a brief period.

Although I am unable to have a pet at present I am a keen supporter of the Brooke Hospital for Animals http://www.thebrooke.org/ and would urge all animal lovers to look at the work they do.

Many thanks for your questions!

Jane Ayres Bibliography:

GALLERY OF HORSES
THE GREAT HORSE RESCUE
MATTIE AND THE MOONLIGHT HORSE
MATTIE AND THE PROBLEM PONY
THE HORSE ON THE BALCONY
DARK HORSES
THE RUNAWAY HORSE
TRANSITIONS
ZEPHYR OF WILD HORSE ISLAND

I have reviewed some of these in my last blog post. You can also find out more by visiting the Jane Ayres page on the website.

Stabenfeldt Books Review Part 3

2011-02-09T13:23:00.000-08:00

If you follow my blog you will know that last year I started reviewing some of the books published by the Stabenfeldt company, a specialist in children's equine fiction which sadly does not publish in the UK. I have now read more books by different authors and some new books by existing authors and will be summarising and reviewing them below. If you have't read the first two parts of the Stabenfeldt review you can check them out below:

Stabenfeldt books review part 1

Stabenfeldt books review part 2

But back to this instalment. Once again a general thumbs up for this latest batch which include books by Eli B. Toresen, Emma Raven, Eleanor Jones, Angela Dorsey and Jane Ayres.

Dangerous Summer 2 and Dangerous Summer 3
by Eli B. Toresen

SUMMARY: There are three books in the Dangerous Summer series, of which I have read books 2 and 3. Each book contains two short novel sized stories about a particular heroine, so you are getting two books in one when you buy them, a bonus before you even start reading! The series, as the title suggests, has a thriller/mystery slant.

Dangerous Summer 2 contains two stories about Heather and her horse Caliban, her best friend Angelica and Justin the boy she has a crush on. In the first instalment, Heather finds the summer hols riding with her friends at the local riding school marred when she spots what appears to be a man burying a body in the local forest! But when she reports it to the police all they find is a bag of old rubbish. At first she thinks she may have made a mistake but then she begins to feel she is being watched and threatening notes start to appear.... In part two, money goes missing from the stable and Justin is blamed. Heather wants to prove him innocent but she has a terrible sneaking suspicion he could be the culprit after all!

Dangerous Summer 3 concentrates on non-pony owning Bethany who has to cope with fighting her envy when her best friend gets a horse of her own and with her dislike of her new step-father. In part 1 she forgets her troubles as robbery strikes. In part 2 a mysterious airplane drop begins a series of adventures which put the horse she loves in danger.

MY VIEW: Although the books don't contain much in the way of depth or character development they are however very good examples of the pony thriller/mystery genre. They are well written, easy to read and fast paced and keep the reader hooked throughout, wanting to find out more. The tension builds up well, with a few twists and turns along the way to prevent interest flagging. The heroines are likeable and easy to identify with and the characters all engaging and believable. The horse content blends in well with the thriller element, and does not seem a mere backdrop as in some similar types of story, although of course there is not quite as much horse content as in a traditional non-thriller pony story.
There is a 'teen' element in the books, especially Dangerous Summer 3, in which our heroine is madly in love with a boy, but this is handled well. It is clear that the girls put their horses first, as is only right!
The format of two novella sized stories in each book is ideal for the less dedicated young reader who may lose interest in longer books. I especially like the idea of including the same heroine in both stories, which gives the feel of reading a mini series. Because of the stories' shorter size, the writing is necessarily sparer in style than in some longer books, but the characters are fleshed out enough to make them three dimensional, even if not as fully rounded as in some more introspective works. Dangerous Summer 3 is perhaps the most interesting of the pair of books reviewed here because the heroine has a bit more depth to her as she struggles to cope with her emotions. Both books however were better than I expected, especially as the pony thriller is normally one of my least favourite types of pony story. Recommended for those who want a quick easy read with some crime and mystery thrown in for good measure, rather than anything too deep or meaningful, and especially good to introduce slightly reluctant readers to the pleasures of fiction.

Twilight Horses by Emma Raven

SUMMARY: Salma and her parents move into a large house with plans to turn it into a bakery and cafe. They employ a young chef, Tony, who Salma immediately befriends, and even better there are stables next door with lots of lovely horses and a gorgeous boy called Ryan to boot! Salma falls in love with a beautiful black horse at the stables called Luce whom she secretly rides one night. She finds out that the stables belong to a family who train horses for film work and stunt riding and she soon becomes involved in helping out. But all does not seem so rosy when weird things start happening around the house and stables and a menacing presence seems to be haunting the place. The horses become inexplicably ill and are not working well. And as phantom footsteps, slamming doors and worse haunt the bakery, Salma's parents are beginning to regret their decision to move here. But worse is to come. Salma finds out the history of the house and begins to suspect that Luce may be the focus for an evil force. Ryan's father decides to sell Luce and Salma is heartbroken. Can she prove that Luce is not the source of the hauntings and find a solution before she loses her favourite horse?

MY VIEW: This is the first in a 3 part series. If you have read my previous Stabenfeldt reviews, you may remember that I have already read the last one in the series. I could not get into that story at all and found I couldn't finish the book. I did however reserve judgement somewhat until I attempted to read the earlier books in the series, as I sometimes find it hard to pick up a story from the last in a series. I must admit, after now reading the first instalment, I have a more favourable opinion of the series. I found this one readable and quite enjoyable. The main character is likeable and the story is fast paced and has a lot of interest in it. Unlike the last book in the series, Twilight Mystery, it doesn't try to pack too much in, the book has a good central plot with which all elements of the story are linked to. The main problem I have with the book is that it is very 'teen' orientated with a lot about looks, boys and the like, which I realise is more off-putting to an adult reviewer like me! I think that younger readers however will like this element, which to be fair, is handled well and blends in with the story. And although she ponders quite a bit over her relationship with Ryan, it is still clear that Salma is more dedicated to the horse than his owner! The light, slightly chatty style will also appeal to teenagers as will the banter between the teen characters. All in all a good exciting supernatural story which is most suitable for teens. I am certainly now more pre-disposed to trying the rest of the series again now that I have a grounding in the characters and situation.

Dreams or Demons by Eleanor Jones

SUMMARY: Laura has recently moved to England from America and has become involved with a family of horse dealers who helped her buy her first horse, a neglected Arab whom she has lovingly restored to health and fitness. One day when out riding her Arab, Aladdin, in the nearby forest, the horse bolts and she is knocked out. When she comes to she finds a horse's bone and a strange bricked up cave. Later she persuades her friend Billy to come with her to explore the cave, but when they manage to get inside she feels a frightening sense of menace. Soon after she begins to have nightmares and Aladdin also seems spooked. When a girl called Penny comes to buy a horse from the dealers she spots Aladdin who is stabled there and recognises him as the double of an old portrait of a woman on a horse that is in her house. Laura and Penny become friends and start to piece together the mystery of the cave and the evil presence which seems to be haunting the woods.

MY VIEW: After reading Circle of Blue by Eleanor Jones, I was looking forward to reading more by the same author. This was again a very good read, although I don't think it quite matched the excellence of Circle of Blue, which was more innovative and had a more interesting plot and more in the way of character development. However this story was still a cut above the average ghostly pony story. The characters are developed enough to be three dimensional and the book is fast paced and well written. The sense of mystery and menace builds up well and when the reason for the ghostly presence is discovered it has a slightly more original explanation than the norm, as is the girl's solution to the problem! There is also a bit of a twist to the ending.
The problem of the 'Americanisation' of books set in England, seen in many of the Stabenfeldt books, is solved here by our heroine being American and her using American words and expressions seems natural.
The main quibble I have with the book is the poor editing. In one section a horse changes colour from piebald to chestnut in the space of a short ride! In another section (Page 106-7), much more noticeably and confusingly, the characters of Laura and Penny are completely mixed up. Laura fleetingly gains Penny's name, mother and dog! This really is a blatant error and should have been picked up on immediately. But, although it jars somewhat, it is not enough to spoil the story.
I have also recenlty read two more of the author's books, Echo of Hooves and Fears and Phantoms. Unfortunately due to time constraints I am unable to review those two at the moment, and may come back to them in more detail later. In summary they are also ghostly/supernatural stories and also above average, although I still think Circle of Blue is the best of them all. Ms. Jones is definitely in my top 10 of authors writing pony book stories today, and one of the best writing supernatural equine fiction.

Whinnies on the Wind Series by Angela Dorsey:
Book 1: Winter of the Crystal Dances
Book 2: Spring of the Poacher's Moon

SUMMARY: This is the newest series from one of my favourite Stabenfeldt authors, which adds a twist to the wild horse story. Evy lives in the wilderness of Nova Scotia with her artist mother and their horses and also the wild mustangs which roam the area. Not only does Evy love horses but she has a strange bond with them which enables her to feel their emotions and actually communicate with them in a rudimentary fashion! In Book 1 Evy is learning to come to terms with her strange powers which seem to cause more trouble than they are worth when it seems her attempts to communicate with a wild mustang mare has caused her death. Her guilt overshadows her as she attempts to help the herd through a bitterly cold winter and rescue an injured filly. She is also plagued by curiosity as to the reason for her mother's withdrawal from the world into a hermit like existance far from anywhere. In the second story, Evy saves a baby moose, but faces losing her beloved filly and faces danger from illegal hunters. We also find out more about her mother's past, although just enough to keep our curiosity alive!

MY VIEW: As with her previous books, Ms. Dorsey has taken a well-used genre - in this case that of boy/girl and wild horses - and given it extra depth and an added twist. The fact that Evy can 'talk' to horses is intriguing and draws you immediately into the story. The first book, as Evy comes to terms with both the good and bad sides of her talent is outstanding and was worthy of a much more in depth review than I can fit on the blog.

Read full review here

Book 2 has less depth but more excitement and adventure, being faster paced and packing more events in. I preferred the more introspective tone of the first book but I suspect younger readers will enjoy the elements of danger and faster pace of the second book. I did like the fact that the sub-plot of the mystery of Evy's mother continues, and and I am looking forward to reading more books in the series to find out the secret, as well as seeing how Evy develops her communication skills. Once again, Angela Dorsey has delivered interesting and exciting new stories which will appeal to a wide group of readers.

Zephyr of Wild Horse Island by Jane Ayres

SUMMARY: An old broken-hearted man shuns society and lives on a remote island with the horses he breeds. His pride and joy is a beautiful grey Arab stallion called Zephyr. When the man dies the horses revert to the wild, led by their stallion. But their peaceful existance is broken when poachers spot the stallion and determine to catch him. Zephyr is taken off the island but manages to escape. However he is left injured and alone, far from his herd. As he searches desperately for his home and his mares he is helped by three lonely people, whose lives he changes forever.

MY VIEW: Like Eleanor Jones, Ms. Ayres is a British novelist who is perhaps better known in America (certainly more published there) than in the UK. This is a shame as, like Ms. Jones, she is also an excellent writer. This story is quite unusual. It is structured rather differently from the normal modern pony novel, with both pony and human viewpoint, and is partly episodic. Both these elements are reminiscent of some of the very old pony books of the 1930s, where the main equine protagonist is taken from its wild home and ends up passing through a number of owners, but the author manages to make this seem fresh and modern. It also reminds me a little of DPT's A Pony of Sale, although in this case it is not how different people affect the horse, but how the horse affects the people. The characters are well-drawn and three dimensional. We really care about them. Having three main characters of different ages and sexes also gives the book a less 'teen' feel than many of the current pony books around, and adds depth and maturity. The book has slightly dark overtones, as all of the characters have loss, sadness and loneliness in their life. This is dealt with well. It is sad in places, but never maudlin. The theme, that of contact with a horse transforming a person, is archetypal in the pony book genre, but it is one of my favourites and never seems to get old or tired. In fact, in modern books it is seen less and less, as teen heroines seem to care more about winning or looking good than their horses. The book is very well written and easy to read. At times it has a slight dream-like quality which I noticed too in the author's book of short stories, but this is mingled with down to earth realistic episodes. The episodic nature of the book is tied up neatly at the end, which is somewhat unrealistic, but satisfying nontheless! All in all an excellent story which has many different elements, but which are expertly blended together to give an enjoyable and at times thought-provoking read.

The Horse on the Balcony by Jane Ayres

SUMMARY: The story begins with two girls, Jenni and Holly, devastated by two different tragedies. Both girls feel terrible guilt and find it hard to relate to other people any more. They are brought together by the fleeting glance of a beautiful golden horse on the balcony of a high rise flat. As the girls seek out the horse which they think may be in danger, they learn to move on from their troubled pasts and face a more optimistic future.

MY VIEW: This book was in my opinion the best of all the author's works I have read, and in fact one of the best of all the Stabenfeldt books reviewed so far, and I have devoted a full length review to it.

Read full review here

The book has two sequels which I have also read, although once again due to time constraints, I won't be reviewing in full at the moment. A slightly dark tone also permeates these two stories. They are also good well-written mysteries. However as with a lot of series, they don't quite capture the excellence of the first book in the trilogy . But as that was outstanding, it is not wholly surprising. They are still very good stories with interesting plots and as they are less introspective and intense they move along with a faster pace will suit more impatient readers. The whole series is far better than average and is worth reading for teens or adults.

Matty and the Problem Ponies by Jane Ayres

SUMMARY: This is the second in a two part series. Four pony mad girls, Matty and her three friends, have saved up to buy their very own pony. Unfortunately the mare proves untrained and rather unwilling, not to mention accident prone! And she has another shocking surprise in store for her young owners! Meanwhile Matty is hankering after Daydream, her boyfriend's ex-pony whom she loved and was heartbroken to see leave when he sold her. Her quest to find Daydream is hampered by the arrival of her glamourous German penpal and she also starts to worry that Mark is getting a little too close to the gorgeous blonde teenager. Can she find Daydream and find out if Mark really cares for her?

MY VIEW: This is a lot different in tone to the other books by Jane Ayres, it is more like her earlier book The Great Horse Rescue. It is far more light-hearted and is delivered in a chatty slightly irreverant style by the heroine. It also has less depth or character development than the others. The main character is however well rounded enough as to not be two-dimensional, and is is very likeable. The book, once you have got used to the rarely used present person narrative, is very readable. I also like the character of the problem pony who is certainly no dream horse, being cantankerous and accident prone. It's a nice change from the expensive perfect horses which tend to crop up in a lot of modern pony books, and reminds me of many of the naughty ponies of my youth, when youngsters were content with just about anything with four hooves and had never even heard of a Warmblood!

I do think reading the first book in the series beforehand would be quite helpful as there is quite a lot going on that is continued from book one and it takes a little while to pick it up. That said, the author does summarise what happened beforehand at the begininng of the book so you are not plunged straight in without a clue!

Matty and the Problem Ponies is much more of a 'teen' book than the others of the author that I have reviewed so far, with boyfriend issues and the like being more predominant. For an adult reviewer like myself, there is less depth in this book than in Zephyr or The Horse on the Balcony and less to get your teeth into. However I think it has just the right mix to appeal to teenagers. And even though it does have more 'teen' content than the author's other novels, at the heart it is still a traditional story about girls who love horses. Although not my personal favourites of Ms. Ayres books, I would still be quite happy to read the first in the series to find out more about Matty and her friends' adventures. Reading this book certainly shows that Jane Ayres is, if you will excuse the pun, no 'one-trick pony'. She can handle light-hearted chatty books just as well as those with depth and dark elements, and so provides something for whatever mood you happen to be in!

More on the authors whose books I have reviewed here can be found below:

JANE AYRES

ANGELA DORSEY

ELEANOR JONES

EMMA RAVEN

ELI B. TORESEN

New authors added

2011-01-08T12:01:00.001-08:00

Been too busy over the Christmas period to work much on the website, however I did add a few more author pages in December which I have just got round to uploading. The new authors include:

DOREEN BAIRSTOW
AUDREY CONSTANT
IRENE ESTEP
KATHERINE WIGMORE EYRES
BERTA & ELMER HADER
WILMA PITCHFORD HAYS
'HEATHER'
B HOLLAND HECK
BEULAH KARNEY
ALICE GEER KELSEY
RALF LENGSTRAND
ALIDA MALKUS
ROBIN McKINLEY
MARIO PUZO

As usual you can find out more about them by visiting the author and information page

Hope you enjoy checking out the new authors and a Happy New Year to all followers of the blog and users of the website!

New authors added

2010-11-26T04:01:00.000-08:00

Some more authors added to the website lately. Annoyingly I had to do Patrick Lawson twice as the first page I had created for that particular author a few months ago had mysteriously disappeared!

JANE AND PAUL ANNIXTER
PATRICIA BEATTY
BETH BROWN
FREIDA K. BROWN
MARY AND CONRAD BUFF
MAUREEN DALY
IRMENGARDE EBERLE
FRANCES FROST
BARBARA HOLLAND
MOLLIE HUNTER
ROWLAND JOHNS
HELEN KAY
RUDYARD KIPLING
JILL KREMENTZ
PATRICK LAWSON
ELIZABETH BLEEKER MEIGS
FRANCINE PASCAL
ROBERT NEWTON PECK
D. L. RODRIGUEZ
FIONA SATOW
PRISCILLA WILLIS

Find out more about them on the ponymadbooklovers authors and info page

New authors added.

2010-11-07T04:48:00.000-08:00

Latest authors added include:

ANNE BULLEN
BABETTE COLE
WESLEY DENNIS
BRENDA JOBLING
ELISABETH HUBBARD LANSING
J. PAUL LOOMIS
ANNE LOUISE MACDONALD
MIRIAM E. MASON
CORNELIA MEIGS
MICHAEL MURRAY
MILDRED MASTIN PACE
DON PATTEN
JAMES ROBERT RICHARD
ANNA SEWELL
NORMAN THELWELL
SANFORD TOUSEY
LENORA M. WEBER

These are just the ones I have added in the last week, since posting my last 'authors added' blog I have actually added lots more (just didn't get the time to put them on here) so do check out the book and author information page on the website to see all the authors I have available.

Halloween Hunt!

2010-10-28T03:59:00.000-07:00

As the Easter Egg hunt we had on the website/chat forum back in spring time was so popular I decided to have a similar Halloween themed one.

There are 12 spooky pics to be found on the website and chat forum, each with an accompanying letter. Collect all 12 and rearrange the letters to form the title of a Halloween themed book. Send the title of the book and the name of the author to me by PM or email. First correct answer received will win a choccy pumpkin (UK only due to customs regs sorry). Also all correct entries from folk who are taking part in the Pumble Farm comp will win rosettes and money.

There may be a few red-herrings scattered around too with no accompanying letters, just to annoy you!

Comp starts at 12 noon today and will finish at midnight on 31st October.

Just to get you started....

Stabenfeldt Books Review Part 2

2010-09-14T12:44:00.000-07:00

Finally got around to posting the second half of my review of Stabenfeldt pony books. As you may recall a while back I got a job lot of these books from America and set about reading, and reviewing them. If you read the first installment of my critique of the books you will remember I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the books, which were on the whole a lot better than the usual modern teen pony novels and certainly better than the meagre pickings left to us poor Brits.

To read the first part of the Stabenfeldt review please click here

In this second instalment, I was once more impressed with most of the books, although not all. So now lets look at a selection of them:

Angela Dorsey - Horse Angel series

SUMMARY: A 'series' of stand-alone stories linked by the character of Angelica, the 'horse angel' who is a mysterious girl who can communicate with horses, has supernatural powers and whose purpose is to help horses (and people) in trouble.

MY VIEW: From a brief glance at the description of the series you would be forgiven for thinking it was the usual teen fantasy fare. But when you begin to read the books it soon becomes clear that there is far more to them than that. In my opinion Anglea Dorsey is one of the best of all the Stabenfeldt writers and I think the reason is that she delivers the goods the market demands, but wraps them up within stories that have a lot more depth and characterisation than the norm. I have reviewed the Horse Angel series in depth on the ponymadbooklover forum so I am not going to repeat myself further here. Click here to read the full review

Angela Dorsey - Freedom

SUMMARY: Jani moves to a new house and finds that the barn on their new property is haunted by a ghost horse. The ghost seems to hate people and even tries to attack Jani. But when Jani and her friend Penny find out the truth behind the ghost they decide the horse needs to be helped to be set free.

MY VIEW: As with the Horse Angel series, Ms. Dorsey has also given the now common-place horse ghost story a face-lift. The ghost is far scarier than in most pony ghost stories and there is a general sense of menace in the supernatural episodes. When we learn the ghost's secret it is quite hard-hitting and the subsequent events are slightly gruesome: the story is reminiscent more of an adult ghost story. Indeed this is not a pony story with a ghostly element shoe-horned in just to make it more exciting. It is a true ghost story which just happens to have a horse theme. As with the author's Horse Angel series, the characters and themes have more depth than in most books of this sort. Again, an excellent enjoyable read.

NB - there two further sequels to Freedom.

Eleanor Jones - Circle of Blue

SUMMARY: Tina seems to have a charmed life: with her fabulous horse Phantom she has won a mass of trophies. Compared to her, Billy with his lanky frame and dog-like willingness to please, seems a bit of a joke. But then on the way back from a show she gets lost and when she eventually finds her way home everything is the same but different. Her world has been subtly changed and she is now the underdog with Billy the whizz kid showjumper. How can she get back to her former life?

MY VIEW: This is an interesting book. I haven't read any of Ms. Jones' other pony books but this one is certainly worth a read. Like Angela Dorsey's Horse Angel series it is horsy fantasy but with a bit of a twist, a horsy alternative reality story if you will - almost horsy sci-fi! But at the heart of it lies an old-fashioned morality tale. The heroine seems to have everything going for her, a brilliant horse, a string of wins at shows, etc, etc. But whereas in the more shallow teen horse stories the reader is expected to take that as a given and not question the win, win, me, me attitude, this book questions it's importance . This is what I like about Stabenfeldt books. Far more than most modern teen stories, in general they do manage to uphold the values of the old-fashioned pony book where loving your pony and being a decent person was more important than having a flashy horse, winning all the prizes, or wearing the most expensive brand of jods. In Circle of Blue, the heroine is a little smug at the beginning of the book and she looks down slightly upon the bumbling Billy, not nastily but not really seeing him as anyone as importance. When she talks about the mystery of his missing parents for example, she says that she didn't pursue the mystery, mainly because she wasn't interested enough. When she crosses over into a parallel world she finds that she and Billy seem to have swapped places and he is now the top rider. Through this experience she learns that the old Billy had better qualities and values and as such she learns to appreciate these values much more. We know that if she can get back to her own world she will become a much nicer and more enlightened person, and will no doubt find Billy much more appealing.
But the book is not all morality tale. The supernatural element is very well done, there is a slightly off-kilter note permeating the book that really makes the reader feel that they have entered the same alternate world as the heroine. The book is well-written and very readable and the heroine is likeable enough to root for. An unusual story which will provide a good read to anyone wanting something a little out of the ordinary. I am certainly going to try and find other books by this interesting author.

Sharon Siamon - Saddle Island Series

SUMMARY: Kelsie and her brother Andy have moved to a new home on the beautiful Nova Scotia coast beside the intriguing Saddle Island. Once there they fall in love with the place and become involved in the rescue of a number of horses. But at the back of their minds is that their father will not be able to find a job and they will have to leave their new home.

MY VIEW: Another series in which the title sounds slightly off-putting but proves to be better than expected. Well, actually I had previously read another book by Sharon Siamon and was pleasantly surprised to find it better than the average teen novel, so it wasn't a huge shock to find these books too were of a high quality. Ms. Siamon is, like Angela Dorsey, one of the Stabenfeldt stars. She is another great writer whose books are very readable and who also manages to give some depth to the stories and characters. What I really like most about this series is the relationship of the brother and sister which gives the book a sense of being more than just a pony series, but also about families and relationships. The setting too, on the beautiful Nova Scotia coast, is enjoyable. As with Monica Edwards' Romney Marsh series, boats and the sea play as important a part in the stories as ponies. The pony element of the story is primarily about rescue. In each story the children are rescuing a horse or horses, but there is also a backstory and a bit of adventure in each one too. Romance rears its ugly head but only marginally as the main character has a crush on an older boy, and also her brother and best friend have romantic feelings for each other. It is actually done quite well, especially the relationship of the brother and friend, and captures both the tentative quality of first love, and the struggle to know how to deal with it. Horses, family dynamics, romance and danger: again we have something for everyone in these well-written, fast-paced stories.

Gabi Adam - Diablo Series

SUMMARY: A long running teen series. In the first book Ricki falls in love with Diablo, a horse at the stables where she rides, and finds, to her horror, he is being abused by his owner. She risks her own safety to rescue him and in the later books in the series Diablo becomes her own horse. In the subsequent books, we follow various horsy adventures which happen to Ricki, Diablo and their friends.

MY VIEW: Yet another series and again well done, although in my view not quite as outstanding as the previous books. I have only read a few books in the series but they were all very readable, although the first was to my mind the best. The characters are very well drawn in this series and in particular we have for once a main adult character, with an important role to play in the stories.
Once again the emphasis is not on winning, looks, or success, but on caring for your horse. The books are big on denouncing ill-treatment of animals. The style of the books is perhaps a bit more workmanlike than the more eloquent writing of the previous authors, but this is perhaps a result of translation. Certainly they are very easy books to read. The books attempt to deal with various life issues such as jealousy and old age, and do so in a fairly capable manner, not using them for effect or glossing over them as do some books. There is a romance element but it is not at all mawkish or irritating, in fact it does not detract from the story much at all. The only real downside to the books is that they are a tad over-sentimental, with tears gushing and people hugging on every few pages. All in all though, a good solid pony series.

Anna Sellberg - Sara Series

SUMMARY: Another teen series in which a girl called (you've guessed it) Sara solves a number of horsy mysteries. This is more of a mystery type series than traditional pony series, with the emphasis mainly on solving the equine related crimes.

MY VIEW: There is a problem with these books which I think is mainly due to poor translation rather than the writing. These were originally written in Swedish and were translated into English for the American market. The first book in the series is very hard to read due to its poor (translated) grammar and clunky narrative and I doubt the translator knew much about horses either judging by some of the odd translations of horsy words (although this does provide the occaisional laugh). The story too was fairly run of the mill and there was no real depth to anything. The other books in the series did improve both in terms of better translation and better plots and it must be admitted that the heroine is a very likeable character. Perhaps younger readers will be less critical but it is a shame that a potentially good series could not have been served with a better translation.

Emma Raven - Twilight Mystery

SUMMARY: Salma has an exciting role as a stunt double in a beautiful haunted castle. But then people and horses start to disappear. Can she solve the mystery?

MY VIEW: This is the only one of the lot that I could not even manage to finish. I gave up about a quarter of the way through. I will not go into much detail as I feel its unfair to review a book you haven't read all the way through. It is part of a series which is set in the world of film-making and stunt riding. This was actually the last of the series and perhaps if I had read the others first I would have cared more about the characters and I would have enjoyed the book more. In my mind the book just tried to pack too many things into one story: the horse element, the ghost factor, the glamourous element of the film world, a mystery story. Sadly, I didnt feel interested in any one of these elements. EDIT - I have just got hold of the first book in this series so I am going to give it a go shortly. It will be reviewed in Part 3 of the Stabenfeldt blogs, coming soon!

So once again a general thumbs up for Stabenfeldt. I have read just about all the books now from the original job lot, but I will certainly be looking for more or them to read, especially by those authors I have enjoyed the most, and when I do will review them here.

More new authors added....

2010-08-15T12:35:00.000-07:00

Apologies for the length of this list. Computer problems have meant I didn't have a chance to add authors' names to the list for a while, so this is a catch-up of all those I have added to the website in the last couple of months!

KARIN ANCKARSVARD
LAURA NELSON BAKER
ELISA BIALK
EVELYN BOLTON
JEAN BOTHWELL
EMMA BROCK
ELEANOR BROWN
FAIRFAX DOWNEY
GENEVIEVE TORREY EAMES
GAYLE FARMER
PACIFICO FIORI
THURLEY FOWLER
CLARENCE HAWKES
SARAH HINDS
ISABELLE HOLLAND
JANET LAMBERT
BETTY LEVIN
NICKY MILLARD
DOROTHY N MORRISON
SHIRLEY ROUSSEAU MURPHY
COVELLE NEWCOMB
LEONIE NORRINGTON
REGINALD OTTLEY
MARGARET PEARCE
JILL PINKWATER
BARBARA GARLAND POLIKOFF
LYNN RENAU
DAVID ROOK
MARGARET CABELL SELF
KATE SEREDY
MICHAEL SLADE
NANCY SPRINGER
JO SYKES
DON ALONZO TAYLOR
MARK VAN DOREN
PHYLLIS WHITNEY

As usual, you can check out all the authors here

New authors added

2010-06-30T13:22:00.000-07:00

More new authors added in the last couple of weeks, mainly American but with a few others thrown in for good measure. They include:

C S ADLER

JOCELYN ARUNDEL

JEAN BAILEY

LESLIE BAIRD

GEORGE AGNEW CHAMBERLAIN

JOHN W CHAMBERS

MARGARET GOFF CLARK

REX DIXON (aka ROBERT MARTIN)

ANNE EMERY

THOMAS FALL

JOHN T FOSTER

REBECCA FRANKENRY

ERIC HATCH

VICTORIA HOLMES

CLEDWYN HUGHES

SUSAN JUBY

B L KEARLEY

RITA LYTTLE

ALICE MOLONY

BARBARA MORGENROTH

SCOTT O'DELL

JANET RANDALL

PAMELA REYNOLDS

ANN RINALDI

PAM MUNOZ RYAN

DEBORAH SAVAGE

JOAN SELBY LOWNDES

JUDITH TARR

KATE THOMPSON

ELIZABETH VAN STEENWYK

DIANA WALKER

MEL WAYNE

JOAN WEIR

KIM ABLON WHITNEY

JOHN RICHARD YOUNG

To check out the new authors please click here

The Famous Horse Stories Series

2010-06-06T08:46:00.000-07:00

I have recently been researching one of the few non-British pony 'libraries' - The Famous Horse Stories series published by American publishers Grosset & Dunlap. The series is very similar to the British equivalents such as the Crown and Collins pony libraries, although the slant of the stories is more towards a ranching/wild horse theme than the more traditional British pony stories in the British pony libraries.

What really surprised me however was the number of American authors I had not previously heard of. The stories in this pony library were not on the whole by 'A-list' equine authors. Yes, some very popular authors such as Harlan Thompson, Rutherford Montgomery, Henry V. Larom and Thomas C. Hinkle were featured, but there was nothing by authors of much more world-wide fame such as Walter Farley, Mary O'Hara or Marguerite Henry. Not sure why this was, but it has certainly opened my eyes to yet more authors in the field! From the relatively simple task of compiling a section on the Famous Horse Stories books, I have had to widen my net to include all the authors who featured in the series who were not already on my website!

The new authors added who feature in the series include:

GLENN BALCH

ESTELLE BARNES CLAPP

PAGE COOPER

DANA FARALLA

JOHN TAINTOR FOOTE

DAVID GREW

DON LANG

HENRY V. LAROM

ISABEL McLENNAN McMEEKIN

COLONEL S. P. MEEK

KEITH ROBERTSON

To check out these new authors and also the new Famous Horse Stories page please visit the information section on the website

Two new sections added

2010-06-04T12:27:00.000-07:00

Just a quick one to let people know that I have recently added two new sections to the website:

1. SERIES - You can now search for books and authors by series. This may be useful if you can remember some details about a particlar well-loved series but not the author, and can also be browsed to see if any new series take your fancy!
To see the new series page please click here

2. PONY ANNUALS - Including pages on Pony Club, Pony Magazine, Princess, Follyfoot, Black Beauty and Champion annuals. More annals will be addded in time.
To check them out please click here

New authors added

2010-05-06T12:34:00.001-07:00

Latest authors added to the website include:

NINA LLOYD BANNING

SUSAN CHITTY

MARION DOREN

KATHLEEN DUEY

ALLISON ESTES

GABY HAUPTMANN

FLORENCE HIGHTOWER

AVRIL KNOTT

LURLENE MACDANIEL

DANDI DALEY MACKALL

ALBERT G. MILLER

MARIANNE MJELVA

PATIENCE MCELWEE

STEPHEN MEADER

TROY NESBIT

THEA OLJELUND

FRANK C ROBERTSON

NANCY SAXON

MALIN STEHN

SUZANNE WEYN

I will not be adding many new authors in the near future as I am concentrating on some other new sections to be added to the site.

More new authors added

2010-04-07T12:49:00.001-07:00

Latest authors to be added to the website include:

THELMA HARRINGTON BELL
DOROTHY POTTER BENEDICT
CLAIRE BIRCH
PATRICIA CALVERT
JUNE CREBBIN
MAGGIE DANA
SHERYN DEE
LUCY DIGGS
MARLENA FRICK
JOAN PHIPSON

You can check them out on the author and book info pages

New authors added

2010-03-31T13:52:00.001-07:00

Latest authors added to the website include:

CAROLE CARRECK
ARTHUR CATHERALL
BERLIE DOHERTY
ANTONY HOPKINS
WILL JAMES
MAIRIN JOHNSTON
G. O CONNOR
HELEN SOLOMON

Some of these you may not have heard of as they have only written one or two pony titles. However, I am sure everyone will know Will James, who is a perhaps belated addition! To check out these and many other authors please visit the author and book info page here

Latest authors added to the website

2010-03-21T14:34:00.000-07:00

A few more authors added tonight:

MATT CHRISTOPHER
MARY ELLEN COLLURA
JOHN HAMLIN
CATHERINE HAPKA
MARSHA HUBLER
WALT MOREY
SHELLEY PETERSON
DIANE LEE WILSON
MAIA WOJCIECHOWSKA

These are mainly American or Canadian authors. To check them out please visit the website book and author info page

Stabenfeldt books.....pleasantly surprised!

2010-03-16T12:49:00.000-07:00

I have recently got my hands on a large job lot of pony books published by Stabenfeldt. For those of you who don't know them, Stabenfeldt are a large USA/European publishing company which specialise in publishing pony stories. They do not however publish in the UK so the books are not seen that often over here. As far as I am aware they are the only specialist pony book publisher around, and not surprisingly many British writers of equine fiction have found it easier to get published by them than by British publishers: these include Jenny Hughes, Pamela Kavanagh, Isolde Pullum and Jane Ayres to name a few.

Now I am not a huge fan of the modern pony story, I find them on the whole too overly endowed with fantasy, the characters self-centred and pre-occupied with winning, and the overwhelming 'teen' atmosphere of boys, romance and looking good rather cloying. However, I thought I would give some of the 'Stabenfeldt' pony stories a go. I must admit, after reading about half or dozen or so, I am quite pleasantly surprised. OK, the books do suffer somewhat from the usual over-preponderance of fantasy and romance, but otherwise these are amongst the most traditional type and enjoyable modern pony stories I have read.

Here is some info and my views on the ones I have read so far:

THE GREEN HORSE HOTEL, GREEN HORSE SUMMER, GREEN HORSE WINTER by ISOLDE PULLUM

SUMMARY: A trilogy of books about a horse mad teenage girl who is living at a haunted hotel run by her parents. Each book is concerned with a) Jenna's horsy exploits, b) a supernatural plus a non-supernatural mystery, c) Jenna's love life which consists of a love triangle between her and two good looking guys. They are primarily mystery stories.

MY VIEW: Of all the Stabenfeldt books I have read so far they have the most fantasy and teen romance elements within. However, neither of these are not too overpowering and the books are very readable with good solid mysteries at the heart of the stories.

I have written a full review of the trilogy which can be read here

BRAZEN HORSE by ISOLDE PULLUM

SUMMARY: Paula is traumatised when her in-foal mare Bella is attacked and hurt badly. To take her mind off the tragedy, her parents allow her to buy a new horse. Enter Jazz, a brash and brazen Polish horse who has plenty of raw talent but no manners! With the help of a new boyfriend and a local horsy expert, Paula starts to tame Jazz and is hopeful of a possible eventing career for the pair of them. But someone is out to get Paula and prevent her and Jazz from getting on. Is it the horrid Tony, and could he also have been responsible for Bella's injuries?

MY VIEW - This is I feel superior to the Green Horse trilogy by the same author. Why? Firstly the heroine is more sympathetic, she has more faults than Jenna from the Green Horse books, which makes the reader more able to empathise and identify with her. Secondly the romance element is much more subtle and does not take over the horse story at all. Thirdly, this is much more of a traditional horse story with more horsy detail about training, etc, and no sniff of the supernatural! Like the Green Horse series it is very easy to read, but the narrative, from the first person view-point is tighter than in that series. On the down side the story line is not hugely original, but that is not a huge fault. All in all, probably the closest thing you can get to a traditional pony book from a modern author in this day and age!

IF WISHES WERE HORSES by VIRGINIA VAIL

SUMMARY: Cam lives with her large family, helping out on her parents market garden/farm. She has an image of a dream horse in her mind but knows that money is too tight for her to ever have a horse of her own. Although she shares her best friend Lacey's pony, she feels left out when Lacey joins a local riding club. Then one day she ends up rescuing an ugly-looking neglected horse which she buys for 2 cents to save from slaughter. The horse could be a ticket to her membership of the riding club. But she soon finds that the animal, even when it has been restored back to health is far from the wonderful horse of her dreams!

MY VIEW: One of my favourites of these Stabenfeldt books and one of the better modern stories I have read. Admittedly it was originally written a few years earlier and the Stabenfeldt book is a reprint, but even it's original publishing date qualifies it under my definition of 'modern.' This is an extremely traditional story and the bare bones of the plot could easily have featured in a pony book from the 1940s or 50s. There is not a ghost, unicorn or indeed lovelorn maiden in sight! Like all the best horse stories, this is about the relationship of horse and girl and the transformation of said girl through her contact with the equine persona!

I have written a full review of the book which can be viewed here

THE PONY VACATION by GILL MORRELL

SUMMARY: Horse mad girl goes on a riding holiday but once there she feels inexperienced and hopeless next to the other children. She eventually overcomes her fears to learn to ride and enjoy herself, but the holiday is marred by the nasty tricks played on her by an unpleasant boy.

MY VIEW: Nice undemanding children’s story. Believable characters who interact well together. The heroine is sympathetic and there is a satisfying ‘baddie’ to rail against. Very easy to read narrative which flows nicely. There is a very slight element of romance which is very subtle and not intrusive at all, in my opinion the exact level which should be in a pony book for this age level (ie up to younger teens). In fact the book may in fact be slightly anti-romance in that one of the characters who lets a crush on a boy get the better of her, ends up suffering for it! Possibly lack of originality and a slightly unsubtle delivery of various ‘messages’ within the story (ie..learning to get along with siblings) are the only real faults, but all in all a good traditional pony story with none of the modern downfalls of too much fantasy, romance or emphasis on winning.

THE CHRISTMAS COLT by MALLORY STEVENS

SUMMARY– Girl living on family stud farm must raise one of the foals as a family tradition. When it is a year old, it will be sold at auction and part of the money used to buy her a horse of her own. When the foal she has to look after is not that of her favourite mare she is devastated. But she soon learns to love the foal. In fact she gets so close that she cannot bear the thought of losing him when he must be sold.

MY VIEW - Another modern book I really enjoyed. I was prepared to dislike the heroine at first as she seemed to have too much going for her and not much to empathise with. The fact that she really disliked a little Anglo Arab colt was and thought him ugly was particularly incomprehensible! However as the book goes on the heroine becomes much more sympathetic. What begins as duty turns into love as she realises that character is more important than looks. There is little in the way of teen romance or the like to get in the way of the story, as our heroine is too dedicated to her foal to gad about with boys! It is at heart a traditional girl and horse love story with a very poignant part where she has to give up her beloved foal.

LEGEND OF THE ISLAND HORSE by JENNY HUGHES

SUMMARY: Girl and horse go with father to stay on island while he researches a horsy legend for his book. There girl meets cute boy who helps her school her horse. Strange things start to happen and people begin to get hurt. Can this have something to do with the legend?

MY VIEW: A mystery story. Of the Stabenfeldt ones I have read recently, this is perhaps the weakest. It’s hard to put my finger on why. It is competently-written, readable and has believable characters and it manages to handle the modern teen elements of fantasy and romance well. The romance is there but there is nothing cloying about it and there is none of the teen angst about ‘lurve’ which can threaten to spoil a modern pony story. In fact, although there is a romance in all of the author's books, she has in my opinion got the amount and depth which should be contained in a pony book just right. The horse element is interesting, with the horses being trained for eventing in a realistic manner, and the island setting is nice. Perhaps what disappointed me about the story most was the fact that the legend which gives the book its title seemed to be put on the back-burner for most of the book. This was in my mind the most potentially interesting aspect of the plot and better use of it could have injected some extra interest into a rather dull story-line. As with all Jenny Hughes' books this story is very easy to read but perhaps it is not one of her best.

As you can see from the reviews, I had a favourable opinion of most of the books I have read and they do prove that traditional pony stories can be written within a modern framework. Sadly, British publishers do not seem to believe this and our own selection of traditional modern pony stories is pitifully sparse. It is annoying that lovers of pony literature in the UK must buy from the USA to find a decent modern story, especially as ironically many of the authors are British!

Watch this space for more reviews of Stabenfeldt books coming soon......

New authors added

2010-03-11T12:08:00.001-08:00

More new authors added lately. They include:

MOLLY BYROM
CAPTAIN C. H. DENT
IVOR HERBERT
META MAYNE REID
JANNI LEE SIMNER
MALLORY STEVENS
HARLAN THOMPSON (aka STEPHEN HOLT)
JERRY WEST
MIRIAM YOUNG

To check out these and lots more click here

Two new sections added

2010-02-28T16:45:00.000-08:00

I have recently added two new sections on the website. There is a small section on European authors with links to the various authors. Also a larger section about pony book libraries and pony book publishers. This includes separate pages on the 3 main pony book libraries, Collins, Crown Ponies and J. A. Allen and has lists and pics of the books. There is additionally a feature on the Stabenfeldt/Pony Publishers who are it seems the only specialist publisher of pony books. Sadly, they are an American/European business who do not publish in the UK. But more on them in an upcoming blog.

To check out the new sections here:

European authors & books

Pony libraries and publishers

Latest authors added to the website

2010-02-18T14:49:00.001-08:00

Just a few more new authors I have recently added to the website:

IVY BAKER
SUE BENTLEY
DEBORAH FELDER
HILARY FITZGERALD
GRISELDA GIFFORD
AGNES V. RANNEY
RACHEL RIVERS-COFFEY
SHARON SIAMON
LOIS SZYMANSKI

You can check them out on the information section of my website here

eBay u-turn - but is it too late?

2010-02-09T13:18:00.000-08:00

Well, this is an update on my earlier rant about ebay bringing in rules to prevent sellers charging postage for books and similar items. As predicted this caused a huge furore. Many sellers abandoned ebay, others tried to bend the rules: the result was less bargains for the book collector and an atmosphere of chaos and unrest. Now, eBay have suddenly decided they were wrong (well they didn't actually come out and admit it, surprise, surprise) and have done a complete about turn on the postage policy, scrapping forced free postage and once more bringing in capped limits.

I think this is partly a direct response to a huge number of complaints, but probably due for the most part to the falling sales/profits over the period that the policy was operating. According to Advertising Age (an advertising and marketing journal) eBay's income for the fourth quarter of 2009 was down a massive 31% and it's stock prices have also plummetted. At the same time its rival Amazon reported increased profits over the period: perhaps due to disgruntled ex-eBay sellers (and their buyers) flocking there?

Whatever the reason for eBay's u-turn, it is still debatable how much this will help them. Many sellers have left vowing never to return, and it has perhaps pushed some small businesses who were once totally loyal to eBay into exploring a wider range of selling platforms. People have begun to lose confidence in ebay and it may take more than this volte-face to restore it. For eBay is still tinkering around, changing the rules every few weeks so that no-one - buyer or seller - knows where they are. Sadly they have completely ignored the old adage 'if it ain't broke don't fix it.' If they want to regain the halcyon days of the eBay of yore they have to do a lot more than this - but perhaps it is a step in the right direction. I just hope if they are trying to bring back the old-style eBay it is not too late to do so.

New authors added to the website

2010-02-06T12:47:00.001-08:00

A few more authors added to the website this month. They include:

GABI ADAM
MAJOR ENRIQUEZ
PIPPA FUNNELL
D. GLYN-FOREST
EMMA RAVEN
ANNA SELLBERG

Check them out on the author and book info page

I am almost finished a page on Sharon Siamon but need to scan a couple of pics to add before uploading it. Still working on the Monica Edwards page as it's huge!

Not as good as I remembered...but still a classic!

2010-01-17T10:50:00.001-08:00

This is a copy of the review I recently did for A PONY FOR JEAN by JOANNA CANNAN on the ponymadbooklovers website Please feel free to add comments here or on the website.

SUMMARY

When Jean’s rich father falls on hard times the family must move to a cottage in the country. But Jean soon finds life actually becomes more enjoyable. When visiting her cousins Jean falls off one of their ponies and then confesses she cannot ride. They give her a scrawny mistreated pony whom they had rescued but now don’t know what to do with. They call him The Toastrack as he is so skinny, but Jean re-names him Cavalier. After a lot of loving care and attention, Cavalier improves a lot. So does Jean’s riding. Although the cousins tell her he can’t jump, one night when their house is burgled and Jean rides him for help, he jumps a stile. Eventually Jean persuades him to jump in cold blood and he becomes quite a nice little jumper.
Jean does not really get on with her cousins, especially Camilla who is a superb rider but is a little obnoxious. The only one who is quite nice is Guy. After a humiliating pony club rally when she is classed with the ‘tinies’ Jean is determined to do well at the Pony Club gymkhana. Her mother tells her she must not enter for the jumping as they will be too high for her, but she is disappointed as that is Cavalier’s forte. She secretly borrows money from Guy to enter on the day.
She does well at the gymkhana and when celebrating with an animal’s fancy dress party the cousins turn up and she realises they are not as bad as she thought after all. There is a slight crisis when it turns out her father has regained his fortune and got a new job - but when she finds out she won’t have to leave the country and move back to London Jean is happy.

REVIEW

It has been many years since I read this book, but I lately decided to re-read the full ‘Jean’ series. I have to say I was slightly disappointed, as the series does not compare favourably to her other works such as I Wrote a Pony Book and They Bought Her a Pony. The main gripe with the story is that the plot is unoriginal. However, this is ironically the one point we cannot really criticise it upon. Why? Because of the era when it was written. To the modern reader who has read hundreds, if not thousands of pony stories, the plot of a girl improving a seemingly hopeless pony and her own riding in order to win at a gymkhana, is hopelessly jaded. However in the 1930s when the book was first written, most pony books were Black Beauty-esque tales, told either from the pony’s point of view, or mainly concerned with the life of the pony rather than the people in the story. Joanna Cannan, and one or two other authors of the time, began to explore a different sort of pony story: that seen from the viewpoint of the rider rather than that of the pony. So in reality, the plot was actually fairly revolutionary for it’s time!

However, even if we cannot criticise the unoriginality of the plot there are a few holes in the story which I must point out. One of the main criticisms is that Jean, having only ridden on seaside donkeys or ponies, and with no instruction, manages not only to learn to ride well enough to win the jumping in a gymkahana, but also to train a green pony to jump, (a pony it must be remembered that her cousins – all experienced riders – could not). This is fairly unbelievable. If we compare the book to a similar novel written about the same time – Jill’s Gymkhana – Jill actually has the help of an instructor in the form of Martin, and even then she does modestly well at her first gymkhana. Jean’s rise is just too meteoric to be believable.

The horse element of the story lacks the realism which Joanna’s daughters, the PTs, brought to their books. There is very little emphasis on the actual training of horses, or the ins and outs of riding. Jean trains Cavalier to jump by leaping over jumps with him following and giving him oats. Not exactly scientific – and Major Holbrooke would be rolling his eyes! The author probably wasn’t hugely experienced when she wrote the book; her daughters had ponies so she obviously knew the basics but she either did not share their in-depth knowledge or just did not consider it worth while putting in a book. To be fair, the instructional element in pony books did not really appear until a generation later (and was in fact pioneered mainly by daughter Josephine) but in my mind the lack of reality in the pony element is a little disappointing.

The book unfortunately ticks the box of that main criticism of the pony book genre: it is solidly middle class. The family has supposedly fallen on hard times but is living in a detached cottage with its own orchard and stables. Like Jill and her mother in Ruby Ferguson’s book, they also still have a ‘daily’ woman who comes in to cook and clean for them! The class boundaries are firmly in place. When Jean calls a gamekeeper ‘my good man’ it offends the modern reader, but was quite normal behaviour in that day and age. The ‘jolly hockey sticks’ type tone of the book also palls slightly at times and the author has an irritating habit of italicising: you can lose count of the number of time Jean shrieked or screamed at her mother or flew somewhere or commented that something was awful. (And this fault if anything is worse in the sequel!)

However, despite the criticisms, this is in no way a bad book. In fact it is very well written, well-observed and highly readable. The book is written in an irrisistably humourous style which carries the reader along effortlessly. You at once warm to Jean, who although not the most exciting character in the world, is extremely human. The fact that it is written in the first person does help with empathy but it is mainly achieved through the skill of the writer. All the little annoying quirks of life appear, like items disappearing and reappearing in unlikely places, things going wrong when you are in a hurry, etc, etc. And they are all described with a resigned humour which is reminiscent almost of a stand-up comedian.

Although this is in no way a deep or soul searching novel, we do get a glimpse into the interior life of Jean. One of the most striking observations she makes is how sometimes we fail to speak up when we should:

“Sometimes, when you are among strangers….you can’t say things, especially when they are very important and matter awfully. In fact the more important they are the more difficult it is to say them.” (Page 65)

There are lots more observations like this and it is due to the skill of the author that these sections do not stand out clumsily from the rest of the narrative, or sound preachy: either of which outcomes could have resulted from a less competent writer.

Along with her hmourous, though insightful, observations on life, one of Joanna Cannan’s talent’s was her skill in creating character sketches. Aunt Daphne, for example, is a brilliant comic creation, but so true to life: that sort of person who is always talking about fluffy little animals but would run a mile from the reality of looking after them. Joanna Cannan is also adept in her lightning quick sketches of minor characters, for example giving the competitors at the gymkhana names which sum them up, such as The Polite Boy, The White Mice, etc. In this way she makes it more interesting to read, without having to go into too much detail and spoil the narrative flow. Gymkhana scenes are perhaps the hardest to write as they can easily become boring or monotonous. I don’t normally find them very entertaining but in this author’s capable hands the gymkhana reads as easily as the rest of the book.

Fortunately in her later books, the author was to concentrate more on her strengths, and that narrative style and humour was to be coupled with much more interesting plots and more in-depth exploration of character: all of which seem to come together in her brilliant I Wrote a Pony Book. However A Pony For Jean is definitely worth a read for it’s charming style and for the fact that it was at the forefront of the rider-centred pony book as we know it today, and as such is a classic of the genre.

It is also interesting to read Joanna Cannan’s books and see much of her style (both good and bad!) appearing in her children. The humour appeared mainly in Josephine, the insight in Diana and the readability in all three. Her daughters were to build upon her beginnings and bring a further depth and realism to the pony genre, but Joanna will always be one of the pioneers!

NB - To see the review on the ponymadbooklovers website, vote for it and/or add comments please click here

Latest authors added to the website

2010-01-04T14:34:00.000-08:00

As of today have added a few new authors. These include some European authors as well as some who write for the Stabenfeldt/Pony Club publishing venture. I will be concentrating on these two areas, plus some American authors, for the next few weeks. The full list of authors added since the last update is:

CLYDE BULLA
ANGELA DORSEY
ELEANOR JONES
NICHOLAS KALASHNIKOFF
LESLEY KING
SHEILA LAVELLE
GUNNEL LINDE
JANE McILWAINE
GILL MORRELL
BEVERLEY NICHOLS
MARJORIE PROCTOR
ISOLDE PULLMAN
GERALD RAFTERY
FELIX SALTEN
JUDY VAN DER VEER
ARMINE VON TEMPSKI

Due to the fact I am practically snowed in at the mo, I will hopefully be able to add quite a few more over January.

New authors added to the website

2009-12-27T07:44:00.000-08:00

Just a quickie to say that, thanks to the Christmas hols, I have at last managed to add some more new authors to my website
Most notably Lorna Hill, but also Judith Campbell, Catherine Spencer, John Kenney and Betty Horsfield (great name for a pony author!) I will hopefully be adding more over the next few days. I may start work once more on my Monica Edwards page. The file and its back up mysteriously disappeared so I have to start from scratch - most annoying!

No such thing as a free lunch.....or postage!

2009-10-18T11:14:00.000-07:00

Well folks, apologies in advance for a bit of a rant, but if I cant rant on my own blog where can I? The subject is eBay. I used to be a big fan. As a bookseller, I was at one time selling a large amount of my stock on eBay and was a ‘highly exalted’ power seller. I also used to love buying bargains there. Now it has all changed. A series of management (or is that mis-management) decisions over the last couple of years has drastically altered the auction site – and not for the better. The consensus of opinion seems to be that the site is moving towards becoming just another homogenous internet mall instead of the interesting and quirky place it used to be. There is a widespread feeling of dissatisfaction with the website, and from the moment eBay announced its latest changes, this dissatisfaction has turned to real anger amongst many eBay users.

Lately there have been a series of fee hikes for the smaller business and private seller, whilst the huge sellers of new goods are being given concessions left, right and centre. Also changes in the way buyers can search for goods has given prominence to such merchant shops, making it well nigh impossible to search for bargains without ploughing through literally hundreds of similar highly priced items from these big companies.

The latest change – coming into implementation on the 19^th October – is to introduce ‘free’ postage in a huge range of categories, including books and videos. But this is a misnomer, it is not free at all and in fact spells disaster for many small businesses and private sellers and is detrimental even for the buyers. How? Well, obviously we sellers cannot post items for free, as unfortunately neither the Royal Mail or any courier service I know of is that obliging! We must therefore add our postage costs to the actual cost of our items when we list them now, and because this increased cost will mean we are paying a final fee percentage of a larger amount to ebay (surprise, surprise) we either have to swallow the loss or add this extra on top of the selling price – thus the majority of goods on ebay will actually probably go up in price.

So much for free postage. Not only is it not free, if you are a buyer you will be more likely to be paying MORE! And it doesn’t stop there because postage discounts for multiple items may also become a thing of the past: how can you give a discount on ‘free’ postage?

But the people who will suffer the most are the private individuals who list a few unwanted things on auction occaisionally, taking advantage of the no auction fee for 99p or less auctions in order to make a few extra quid (much needed in this time of recession). This new change makes a complete mockery of the free listing fees for low cost items - for what things can you post for less than 99p? A light skinny paperback book or DVD costs 76p, a video £1.85, and this does not even take packaging costs into account. These sellers will actually be making a loss on everything they sell at 99p or less if they cannot charge for P &P and so will have no reason to continue listing items.Unless of course they want to risk losing re-listing fees for items which they know may take a few weeks to sell. Say goodbye to those little luxuries the extra money may have afforded, you sellers. And you buyers who would have bought these nice little bargains are also left out in the cold.

Perhaps it wouldn’t stick in the craw so much if eBay wasn’t trumpeting on about free postage as if they are doing everyone a favour and telling us smugly that they have come up with this policy to protect buyers from “excessive P&P costs.” This smacks of the Government’s new crack-downs on sick benefits to the chronically ill, telling such people that they are far better off in work Yeah right, having to drag yourself out of your sick bed and work all day feeling like death, really puts a twinkle in your eye and a spring in your step. In both cases they are trying to pretend they are soliticous of our welfare, when money is the real issue.

I think people would be able to accept the changes, if not with equinamity, but at least with less anger if eBay would just come out and say the real reason they are doing this: that they want to make more money by getting a commission from postage charges and they want to gradually phase out the private sellers and their 99p bargains and the smaller shops who don’t make them much profit. (Just as the Government wants to save money by shipping off all the sick people back to work!) For this is the truth. And another truth is, if this does happen, then buyers will lose those bargains, the huge diversity of items, the interesting and unique things which you could only find on eBay – and it will become just one more boring seller of electrical goods and DVDs.

For myself, I am shutting my ebay shop of 7 years standing, come 19^th October. From selling about 75% of my stock there, this has dwindled to a handful of things a week, and is just not worth the expenditure any more. I may list the odd thing there, but I will mainly be selling on my own websites. I will also be trying ebid which is the main rival to ebay in terms of internet auction sites. OK, perhaps at the mo as much of a rival to eBay as your local computer shop is to Bill Gates, but hopefully when the bargains start disappearing from eBay, perhaps more people will turn there instead. It already has the potential to be the new eBay, and this could be the boost it needs.

I am angry at eBay, but in the end it is a business and it has decided that it can make more money with its new policies. This remains to be seen, but even if its balance sheets do improve, it will be at the expense of something which had become an institution. So my main emotion is sadness that we seem to be coming to the end of an era in internet auctions.

Read or take part in an eBay chat forum discussion about some of these issues

New look website

2009-09-06T12:02:00.000-07:00

I am in the process of giving my pony book collecting site ponymadbooklovers.co.uk a face lift. At the moment it is just the main pages of the site, although in time I will be updating it all for a more stream-lined look. I am NOT a web designer and also have to fit it in with all the other 101 tasks of daily life...so please bear with me on this!

At the same time I will be utilising this blog more for website news and updates on new authors added, etc.

Anyway, hope you all like the new look site which you can check out here

Pony jobs for Jill...or not? Are pony books pro or anti-feminist?

2009-06-09T11:53:00.000-07:00

As with many of my musings, this topic has been inspired by a discussion on the ponymadbooklovers chat forum. Now, I always thought that compared to other books of that era aimed at girl readers, pony books were fairly empowering. Unlike the many of the adventure books, especially those by Enid Blyton, both girl and boy characters in the majority of pony books were on a fairly equal footing. (Compare for example the escapades of the female characters in the families of the Pullein-Thompson books to the way that Dinah and Lucy-Ann in Enid Blyton's 'Adventure' series were always left to do the boring stuff by the boys, who had all the exciting adventures.) However when these independant pony-girls began to grow up and enter the job market, things seemed to change for them. One of the biggest disappointments of my pony book reading career (and that of many other similar readers) is at the end of Pony Jobs for Jill by Ruby Ferguson, when Jill is persuaded to give up her dreams of pursuing a horsy career. After a series of unappetitising horsy jobs, she almost seems to welcome the suggestion by Captain Cholly-Sawcutt that she keep her riding for a hobby and get trained for a 'proper job.'

Far more satisfying were the characters who defied their parents and convention to stick with a horsy career. We have Janet in Janet Must Ride, Rennie in Rennie Goes Riding, Fiona in Clear Round, Sarah and Ginette in Ten Week Stables, and many more.

A lot of books followed the Pony Jobs for Jill theme of the horsy job as being deadly hard-work, under-paid and disappointing: which as we all know it can be. And of course not pursuing a horsy career is not necessarily giving up the fight for equality and independence. However as another forum member pointed out, how come the non-pony choice of job always seemed so un-intellectual? The older pony books offered a selection of secretarial or domestic jobs, more recently modelling has been offered as an alternative to the horsy career. Where were the degree courses, the careers in science, law or teaching? Were these books actually saying that the pony mad girl was anti-intellectual and that horses and brains could not be combined? I am still wracking my brains for books where the heroine left the world of horses to pursue such a job.

So are pony books pro-feminism or do they conform to the old stereotype of women as intellectual inferior and fit only for motherhood or unchallenging jobs? It is sad that many authors allowed their creations only a short period of equality and freedom before
they were expected to conform, and that many were not allowed to show any intellectual capacity at all. Especially so as most of the authors of the genre were female and many were highly educated. On the whole however I think compared to other books of the 1940s-1960s era, they do come down on the side of empowering female characters. For every Jill who allows herself to be moulded into what society would like her to be, there are ten Janets and Rennies who pursue their independance despite the odds. Certainly no girl in any pony book I have ever read bemoaned the fact she was a mere girl and tried to turn herself into a psuedo-boy, as did George in the Famous Five! They may have had their problems but in general, their gender was not one of them!

Goodbye Oscar...

2009-03-27T03:44:00.000-07:00

My dear old cat Oscar who has featured in the blog from time to time has recently passed away after a short illness. He had lived a very full and long life and was such a character with a very large (and loud!) personality. The house seems so empty without him and very quiet! Poor Rosie, his feline friend and sometime sparring partner, is also missing him. He was formerly my Gran's beloved pet, but when she passed away a few years ago he came to live with me. I would like to think that somewhere he and my gran have been re-united once more.

I have been touched and comforted by the many messages of sympathy from friends on the ponymadbooklovers forum and others who have emailed me. Although people may think nothing they say can help at a time like this, I believe that knowing others who have gone through the same thing are behind you, does provide some comfort. So, sincere thanks to everyone who has expressed their sympathy for my loss.

This is the latest in a long line of unfortunate and stressful events to have happened lately which is why I have not been blogging for a while. I will not bore anyone with all the details, suffice to say illness, moving home, and large changes in lifestyle have all played their part. However I will now be aiming to blog again at least once a month. Watch this space!

Jill on Facebook? Golly Gosh!

2008-11-30T09:19:00.000-08:00

Pony books and the e-world...

You can't get two further extremes than the modern hi-tech phenomenons of Myspace, Facebook and Bebo and the old-fashioned golly-gosh world of the Jill pony books created by Ruby Ferguson. So it may seem rather anachronistic to find a facebook group devoted to our pig-tailed heroine.

I was a little surprised myself when I was contacted by it's creator.
But on second thoughts, why not? After all my website (and indeed this blog) is devoted to pony books. Although the internet may be criticised for its detrimental effect on social interection and more traditional past-times such as reading, in my experience it has actually had a benefical effect on the world of pony book sand their readers. Through ebay, many people have been able to find old childhood favourites which they had previously thought they'd never see again. The internet through websites and forums, such as
my own, has brought together like minded pony book loving people. How many times have I been told 'I thought I was the only adult mad enough to still be reading pony books?' I thought that way myself until I met lots of other grown up 'pony book nerds' through the power of the internet. And of course the net is unparalled in its ability to provide information. I (and hundreds of others) have learned so much more about the books and their authors since using the web to access this info and contact other interested people. In all ways the internet has improved the life (and in many cases the book collection!) of the average pony book reader.

So why shouldn't Jill have her own facebook group? And maybe even her own Myspace page and blog! After all when you think about it, the web really can be 'wizard!'

To visit or join the Jill/Ruby Ferguson facebook group click here

To visit the Ruby Ferguson page on my website click here

The most expensive series?

2008-08-19T11:38:00.000-07:00

I have been lucky enough to recently get hold of a few books in the hard to find 'Jim and Ann/Leysham Stud' series by Hazel M. Peel. Whilst reading them and wishing I had the others, it suddenly occured to me not only how hard it would be to find the entire series, but also how expensive! With the cheapest ones in the series, Pilot the Hunter and Easter the Showjumper going for between £10-£20 and around £40 respectively and the other harder to find ones anywhere from £50 to £200 you are looking at possibly over £500 for the full series! This surely must be the most expensive pony book series. In fact, possibly one of the most expensive series of any children's books. I always thought the Chalet School was the most costly set of books to buy - but considering there are far less titles in Ms. Peel's series, it certainly gives the old Chalet School a run for its money.

Thinking of other expensive series to buy, some others that spring to mind are:

Monica Edward's 'Punchbowl Farm' and 'Romney Marsh' series.....£300 ish each
Caroline Akrill's 'Caroline' series......£170 ish
Joesphine Pullein Thompson's 'Moors' series......£150 ish
Primrose Cumming's 'Silver Eagle' series......£100 ish
Jo Furminger's 'Blackbirds' series......£90 ish
Nancy Caffrey's 'Jay and Jan' series......£75 ish

Nudging the £2000 mark for that little lot!!! Who said reading was a cheap past-time...?

Sweet Rock: why is it so obscure?

2008-06-08T18:47:00.000-07:00

I have recently finished reading a copy of Gillian Baxter's Sweet Rock. This is the least well-known of all Ms. Baxter's books and I myself did not even know it existed until someone told me about it not long ago. I suspect I am not the only one in a similar state of ignorance. The book is fairly rare and as far as I am aware was not reprinted at all. The question however is why? The usual reasons for lack of reprints are because the book was not very good or not popular. Perhaps it was not popular but as for not being very good...in my opinion it is one of the author's better works.

The only reason I can give for its lack of popularity is that it does not fit neatly into the usual pony book mould, and contains elements which may be considered controversial, at least at the time of publishing.

The story begins in quite a traditional way with our heroine Sharon bemoaning the fact that she does not have her own pony. She then meets Chris who owns a pony called Sweet Rock. She falls in love with Rock and soon becomes friends with Chris. But Chris is not your typical character. On the whole he is a bit of a wastrel, he does not treat his pony well, in fact has deliberately trained her to bolt and rear, and is always causing trouble. But Sharon finds herself drawn to him, his charm, love of life and willingness to help seem to balance out his bad points. When Chris has to leave for a few months he asks Sharon to look after Rock for him. With the help of a local riding school instructor, she re-trains Rock and begins to win classes on her. But then Chris returns. Although she is happy to see him, she is upset when Chris reclaims Rock, seeing her as an easy way to make money by winning in local shows. But Chris does not have the patience to do well on Rock and things start going wrong between him and Rock and Sharon.

This is as much a story about a troubled boy as a pony book. Chris is a complex and compelling character and it is up to Sharon to redeem not only the troublesome Rock but her equally troublesome master. The book explores whether nature or nurture will win out. Will Chris follow in his shady father's footsteps or can the good influence of Sharon and her mother help to change him? In my opinion this parallel of the traditional 'girl makes unreliable pony good' plot with that of Sharon's similar influence over Chris gives the book a far deeper and more subtle feel than that of your average pony book, but I can't help wondering if it is this more complex element which caused the book to lose popularity. I am reading it from an adult perspective, but the story may possibly have been just too for the younger reader wanting their usual pony book fix.

Also, the character of Chris may have been just too controversial for the time. Were there perhaps complaints from readers about his behaviour? Normally such bad behaviour would be consigned to one of the 'baddies' in a book but in Sweet Rock Chris is ostensibly on the side of the 'goodies.' The blurring of boundaries between the black and white of good and bad is in my opinion what makes the book such an excellent read, but perhaps this was just too subtle for a childish reader (or perhaps censorious parent) to fully grasp.

Whatever the reason it is a shame that this book wasn't more widely published or better known, for it is an excellent pony book which also has a bit of 'bite.' This makes it particularly suitable for the adult pony book reader. If you liked 'Bargain Horses' another quirky read which looks at life from a slightly off-beat angle, I am sure you will also enjoy this book. So please try and find a copy, read it, and spread the word!

Website is back online!!!

2008-05-31T10:04:00.000-07:00

Well, it took a lot longer than I expected, but ponymadbooklovers.co.uk is back! Once again apologies to all who have emailed to ask what the problem was. Hopefully everything is back to normal now...or as normal as it can be!

Ponymadbooklovers website problems

2008-05-13T12:57:00.000-07:00

Apologies to all who have been trying to access the website in the past few days. I am having a few issues with the hosting and domain name provider. I am working hard to resolve these and get the website back on-line as soon as poss. Watch this space....

Adult horse and pony books

2008-04-24T19:00:00.000-07:00

A while back I started to wonder if there were many horse and pony books specifically written for adults. I knew of those by Joyce Stranger and K. M. Peyton and a couple by Dorian Williams and of course the racing crime thrillers by Dick Francis and company...but were there more? Well, a few months later, after both discussing this on the ponymadbooklovers forum and doing a bit of research, I have found that, although the publishing world is not bursting at the seams with adult horse novels, there are a fair amount of books out there.

What is surprising is that a) They are mostly written by American writers and b) a large proportion of them are romance.

Why should that be? Well, with the American angle, I think it has always been true that the American horse book scene is more wide-ranging than that of the UK, not really concentrating on the young girl/pony club element around which the British pony book centres. It has always had a wider frame, with more male central characters, more older characters and is more eclectic in theme. It also seems to concentrate a lot more on racing than the UK books and it is probably this disclipline which attracts a more adult theme (in fact a large proportion of the UK adult horse books are set in the world of racing too). It is not surprisingly therefore that the horse book in America should spill over into the adult market.

As for romance, I'm not sure as to that at all? Anybody who has a theory let me know!

But apart from the crime thrillers, romances and racing stories there is a lot more on offer, from fantasy by the likes of Judith Tarr (she even wrote a book where a sorcerer transforms a man into an Arabian stallion...now wouldn't you like to be able to do that yourself!), historical works, mysteries and much more.

If you would like to see my list of adult horse related fiction please visit the new page on my website here I have also included a number of books which were originally aimed at older children but are particularly suitable for the more mature reader. I hope it will give you some new ideas for reading material...it certainly has done so for me. And if you know of any other adult horse fiction you think should be added to the list please let me know or visit the adult pony book thread on the forum.

Just got a few more titles (thanks to all who provided them) which I haven't had time to add to the website yet:

Ride a Proud Horse by Barbara Morgenroth

Bold Venture (UK title Bluebird) by Dorothy V.S. Jackson

Ins and Outs by Barbara Moss

Ride a Dark Horse by Lynn Hall (older teenager)

To search for the any of the books on Amazon you can use this link:

Florence Hightower....a dark horse

2008-04-05T03:25:00.000-07:00

In a discussion of American pony books recently I was recommended to read the book Dark Horse of Woodfield by Florence Hightower. Not a book I had heard of before ( I hadn't even heard of the author) but as it was likened to a Noel Streatfield book (an author I love) I thought I would give it a go. Apart from a few exceptions I prefer English pony books to American ones, but I was very pleasantly surprised by this one. Yes, it definitely had some of the quirky family characters often seen in Noel Streatfield novels. But perhaps even more the family reminded me of the rather eccentric family in Enid Bagnold's National Velvet.

On the whole though, the eccentric family is more of a British institution, which is possibly why I so liked the book, which despite being set in the USA, somehow feels more British than American to me!

The story is set in the 1930s, in the midst of the Depression. The once prominent and wealthy Armistead family have now fallen on hard times and young Maggie is determined to win the top prize in the Junior Hunter Stake on her pony Star, so she can use the prize money to help buy her Aunt's horse back (sold because they needed the money).

The family are on the whole horse mad, with generations of superb riders, of which Maggie is the youngest. Most of the characters are brilliantly and humourously portrayed, with my favourites being the imperious old horse obsessed Grandmother who once made conversation with a horse at a tea party and Maggie's younger brother Bugsy who is a business man in the making, and is hoping to make money by breeding butterflies in his dead grandfather's study. But even minor characters, such as Maggie's teacher 'Fried Egg' and the unscrupulous car dealer George, are superbly drawn and made real.

It is probably not an out and out pony book as the main plot is not the schooling of Star, but the struggle to make money for the entry fee for the show. There is also a mystery to solve....that of deceased Uncle Wally, black sheep of the family (who loved poetry rather than horses) who, by writing a poem which the family took offence too, caused a family rift and then inadvertantly tragedy. His poems are now famous and good money would be paid for various letters he left behind. But they have mysteriously disappeared. The strands of these subplots all come together, as Maggie learns to appreciate Uncle Wally's poems in order to enter a prize winning essay contest, the secret of the offending poem is revealed, and the children's money making endeavours are the inadvertant key to solving the mystery.

The author manages to create an atmospheric family history. She mentions just a few lines of Uncle Wally's poems, but you start to imagine there really is a book with those poems in, and you yearn to read in its entirety the controversial poem which caused a rift between Wally and the other family members. But the author tantalisingly never reveals it!

As well as superb writing, the book is very funny. There are some great horsy anecdotes, a pony follows is master to school and gets stuck in the door, a sociable horse joins in with a ladies tea party, and the family's horses break free of their field to turn up at the horseshow to give their support! Yes, even the equine characters are eccentric in this book!

So, although not along the lines of the classic pony story and by a little known author who really is a 'dark horse' in the pony book world, if you enjoy quirky novels with interesting characters you will love this book, and I would highly recommend it. I don't think the author wrote any other pony stories but if you know differently please let me know so I can seek them out!

Dartmoor via the USA

2008-03-06T03:50:00.000-08:00

Vian Smith is a rather over-looked author. Despite the fact he wrote a number of excellent pony and horse novels, many people have never heard of him, and those who have may think he only wrote two pony stories - Come Down the Mountain and Martin Rides the Moor. Why? Well, despite being an author whose books are deeply rooted in the English countryside, especially Dartmoor where most of the books are set, many of Smith's books were published in America. Consequently, although fairly easy to find in the states most of the titles are rare in the UK.

One of these such books which I had to purchase from America, is Green Heart. This is a horse story for the older child or adult and focuses on Sarah, a young girl who when her mother dies, must take on the responsibility of looking after her two younger brothers. She takes a job looking after a racehorse but when the horse breaks down at a local racetrack and the owner wants to destroy the mare, Sarah declares that she will nurse the horse back to health. Many of the local busybodies are scandalised when Sarah appears to neglect her brothers for the sake of the horse, and even try to have the children put into care. But as in Come Down the Mountain, the presence of the horse starts to unite the community, slowly changing people's attitudes, as they begin to share Sarah's determinatin to restore the horse back to her former glory and see her race again.

As well as being an excellent story, the book also explores the life of a small country community, the relationship the people have with the land and their surroundings, and the power of the moors, which are intimately bound up with the villager's lives. In some ways this is similar to the horse stories of Joyce Stranger which also focus on their countryside setting, especially the farming community. In this both the works of Smith and Stranger are far more than just run of the mill pony stories.

Other hard to find titles by Vian Smith more commonly seen in the USA include King Sam (published as Tall and Proud in the USA), Question Mark (published as Pride of the Moor in the USA), The Horses of Petrock, The Lord Mayor's Show.

Most of these books, like Green Heart, have a similar deep grounding in their moorland backdrops and it does seem a shame that to read stories which are so essentially English, the reader must buy them from the USA. It almost seems as if the Americans have taken the author to their hearts and appreciated his love of the English countryside far more than their British counterparts.

To read more about Vian Smith please click here

Pony Mad & Precocious

2008-01-27T10:54:00.000-08:00

We have been talking about the ages of pony book authors in a couple of threads on the ponymadbooklovers forum and what really struck me is that there seems to be a trend amongst the writers of these books to start very young. Some of the authors who wrote their first pony book when only teenagers include:

K. M .Peyton - 15 when she wrote Sabre The Horse From the Sea (under the name of Kathleen Herald) and still a teenager when she penned her second novel The Mandrake.

Moyra Charlton - amazingly only around 11 or 12 when she wrote her first book Tally Ho.

Primrose Cumming - a teenager when she wrote Doney

Sheila Chapman - wrote all of her four books when very young.

Gillian Baxter - a teenager when she penned what is probably still her best-loved book Jump For the Stars

Avrill Knott - wrote Pony of Gold when she was 15

The Pullein-Thompson sisters - teenagers when they collaborated on their first book Picotee

Granted, some of these early efforts did not scale the heights of timeless prose, however one or two were amazingly mature works. In particular, I would highlight K. M. Peyton's second novel The Mandrake: it is hard to reconcile the maturity and skill of this book with the actual age of its author.

It is difficult to come up with a reason for this precocity. One suggestion is that children matured more quickly then. But if we examine the ages of some of the non-pony female authors of the same period, such as Enid Blyton, E. M. Brent-Dyer, Noel Streatfield, Richmal Crompton and Lorna Hill, we find that all of these authors were in their 20s to 40s when they began writing novels. It does in fact seem a trend amongst horsy rather than general authors.

Does the responsibility of looking after a pony and the discipline of learning to ride make a child grow up more quickly? This however would not account for the early talents of K. M. Peyton who did not actually have a horse before she wrote her first books.

Did the horsy set move in more upper class circles in which some sort of 'old boy's network' would enable the young author to take a fast track into publishing. This could of course account for the P-T sisters who came from an extremely literary circle and whose acquaintances would of course have included publishers, but once again it would not account for others such as K. M. Peyton who came from ordinary working class backgrounds.

Perhaps there is some mysterious link between loving ponies and wanting to write about them. Do horses inspire a lyricism, a desire to share one's love of them with others via the written word? I'm sure I am not the only one who, as a teenager, wrote pony stories or even a book. (My own effort has (perhaps mercifully) been lost somewhere in the seemingly endless clutter of childhood detritus. But was I feeling the same urge to write as my authoress heroines?

It would be nice to come up with a theory to neatly explain the precocity (and if anyone has any suggestions please let me know!) However, whatever the reason, let us be grateful that our favourite authors did not consign their early works to a dusty attic along with their old dolls and teddies, but allowed the rest of us to share their youthful writings.

Books versus Hunks!

2008-01-19T11:22:00.000-08:00

Due to internet and other technical problems taking up most of my time over the past few days, this weeks blog is very short (and not very serious). For a bit of a laugh we at the ponymadbooklovers forum decided to start a "hot men" thread. A few days later and the flipping thing is now the longest and most visited thread on the forum! I don't know if its true that, as someone on the forum said, horsy gals are all man-mad, but whatever it is poor old Jill, Jackie and the like have now been abandoned and replaced by a succession of male pin-ups. My computer hard-drive, once the province only of pics of cute kittens, horses and various dustjackets, has now been invaded by a bevy of half-dressed hunks!

And there seems to be no stopping us. I think the only way we will get a more popular thread is if someone discovers a sequel to Silver Snaffles hidden away in their loft or finds out they are the long-lost love-child of Ruby Ferguson...

Which one would you like to take to bed with you on a cold night?

Answers on a postcard please!

Bargain Horses...one of her best!

2008-01-03T10:18:00.000-08:00

Apart from the Bobby and Shelta series, I have never been a huge fan of Gillian Baxter's stories for older children. Although her books are pleasant enough reads, for me they lack a certain something. (And I am ashamed to say, despite two or three attempts, I have never managed to get to the end of Tan and Tarmac!) However I had heard good things about Bargain Horses and the sound of the plot was intriguing so I thought I would give it a go.

I'm really glad I did. IMHO Bargain Horses is one of the author's best, perhaps the best since the Bobby and Shelta books. The plot centres around Gemma, a sixteen-ish girl whose mother has a strange habit of buying cheap horses, hoping that she can miraculously transform one of them into the next top eventing star. Her obsession has driven away her husband, used up all their money until they have to live in a caravan, and is now taking over Gemma's life.

What I love most about this book is the way it turns the usual pony book scenario on its head. Whereas we usually have a horse-mad heroine whose parents are constantly trying to get them to do more school work and have a life outside horses, this book is the complete opposite. Gemma is the one who wants to do well at school and is prevented by her mother who feels that school gets in the way of their training schedule! Gemma thinks that she may possibly like to have a career away from horses, it is her mother who wants her to become a top eventer. Unlike most pony book heroines, Gemma feels that horses are getting in the way of other things she would like to do: such as go to parties and have a boyfriend.

The book has a plot that keeps you reading (although I did guess the end!) and the characters of Gemma and her mother Mary are brilliantly drawn. Mary must be one of the most three-dimensional adult characters in any pony book. Sadly in this genre, the adults are often very sketchily drawn or simply caricatures, but not so in this novel. Gemma, too, is a multi-faceted character who is torn between her love of horses and her yearning to have a life of her own.

Bargain Horses is part of the series of pony books published by J.A.Allen in the 1990s, most of which are aimed at older teenagers and adults (as is this one). I have read most of the books in this series and they have all been excellent. They are particularly suitable for adult horse and pony enthusiasts, especially this book.

I have now completed a more detailed review of the book. To read it click here

Christmas...not so bad after all?

2007-12-29T09:25:00.000-08:00

I am not really a Christmassy person. I used to quite like it when it meant escaping work for a couple of weeks, but even that bonus is missing now that I am self-employed.

Everything about it seems to have become an irritation, from the hideously cheerful Christmas songs that begin playing everywhere from October onwards, to the desperate grubbing around trying to find a present more interesting than the usual socks, to the yearly search for the Christmas tree and decorations which never seem to be in the place you remember putting them, to the endless trailing round visiting relatives whom though you only see once a year, its still once a year too much. It's enough to have you reaching for the brandy instead of putting it in the Christmas cake! And then of course there is the orgy of eating and drinking leaving you feeling full of guilt and indigestion as a year's dieting is blown in a week.

But before you are sending me the ghosts of Christmas past, present and future, I do have some nice words to say about Christmas. Well, one, really. Books.

Santa has thankfully ignored the fact I have not been a good little girl and brought me a bumper crop of pony books which I have been looking for to add to my collection. These include Gillian Baxter's Bargain Horses, K. M. Peyton's The Sound of Distant Cheering and The Grey Ghost by Carolyn Henderson, none of which I have read before. But the best of all by far are a pair of books whose arrival has almost made me want to start singing Jingle Bells and wearing a pair of furry antlers on my head.

These are a first edition of Sabre The Horse From the Sea by Kathleen Herald (aka K. M. Peyton) and also by her a 1950s edition of The Mandrake a Pony.

So pass the After Eight Mints and turkey sandwiches round one more time, turn up the volume on that Christmas Compilation CD, I don't care. I will have my head buried in one of these beauties.

Maybe Christmas isn't so bad after all...

The Marvellous Mongolian - an unusual pony book

2007-12-13T13:53:00.000-08:00

Just been reading this book which must be one of the most unusual pony books I've read in a long while. Why? Well, first of all it is about a breed of horse which I've never come across mentioned in a pony book before - the Przewalski horse (also known as the Wild Mongolian Horse). This is a very rare breed which is thought to be the only true wild horse breed in the world. It must also be the hardest breed to spell too!

Secondly the book is set in many different countries, mainly in Mongolia (as to be expected) and Wales. The Welsh setting may seem a natural backdrop for a pony story, but have there been any other pony books set in Asia? Pony books rarely feature countries other than the UK, USA or Australia. The customs and setting of the Mongolian part of the story make for an eye-opening and very interesting read.

Thirdly the way the book is written is very unusual. The whole story is narrated through letters between a girl in Wales and a boy in Mongolia. This type of narrative was very common in British literature around the 18th century but today is extremely unusual. The nearest I've seen to it is in Judith Berrisford's Jackie books where the author uses Jackie's occaisional letters to her parents to update the story and move the plot forward. It may seem a little off-putting to the reader but it actually makes for a very interesting read as we see the characters and customs of two children from different sides of the world.

And lastly, in a genre that is often criticised for its cliched story-lines, the plot is also very unusual. It concerns a wild Mongolian stallion who is captured and sent to a Welsh nature reserve as part of a breeding program. The stallion comes from a wild herd which was was first spotted by a Mongolian boy. The stallion is hoped to breed with a Shetland pony who has been looked after by a girl in Wales. The boy and girl begin to exchange letters, and through them the whole story of what happens next unfolds.

Hopefully I will have time to do a full review of the book on my website. In the meantime I would recommend it as an excellent read especially if you are looking for something different.

Jackie has man trouble

2007-11-28T19:20:00.000-08:00

I have recently been re-reading (almost) the entire Jackie series in an attempt to sort out the series order. Whilst I have been reading I have realised that Jackie (and Babs too) do not have a very good time of it with men. In so many books in the series they seem to be at loggerheads with some man or boy whom they admire but who emphatically does not reciprocate the feeling!

We see this first in Jackie and the Pony Trekkers in which the girls get up the nose of John who runs the Pinewoods Trekking centre. Despite doing a load of stable work, helping with the trekkers and lending the centre their own ponies the girls irritate him to the extent he sends them packing! Then the hapless pair encounter another hostile male in Jackie's Pony Camp Summer. They so antagonise Paul, one of the brother's of the camp's organisers that he runs off with his pony to get away from them! In Jackie on Pony Island they go out of their way to help a family who are trying to raise money by giving pony rides on the beach. Despite giving up their holidays to help and lending their ponies for the beach rides, Dave, the elder brother of the family is constantly exasperated with them, and like John at the trekking centre decides to give them the boot.

But perhaps the book in which the girls excel themselves is Jackie and the Pony Boys in which they manage to annoy not just one but three boys! After the girls have finished with them one of the boy's ponies has been lamed, Patch has caused havoc, the girls have sparked off a fight between two of the boys in which one of them falls down the stairs and knocks himself out, and Jackie has managed to accidentally knock another one of the lads down a mine shaft causing him to sprain his shoulder and putting him out of the riding competition he had been training for all summer. Despite all this, one of the boys is actually quite friendly to the girls and they, no doubt shocked that a male actually likes them for once, end up fighting over him and not speaking to each other!

Makes me wonder if JB really liked men all that much as so many of the male characters in her books were irritating, touchy or ungrateful. And it is clear that in the end Jackie and Babs will always win the battle of the sexes by rescuing or in some way saving the bacon of the man in question. (Instead of thumping them which is what I probably would have done!)

They save John from a fire, Dave is rescued from drowning and Paul gains his nerve again only after galloping off to save Misty. The girls even somehow manage to placate all three of the Pony Boys in the end!

It somehow seems fitting that Jackie and Babs stayed the eternally youthful age of around fourteen over the 26 years the series spanned. If they could cause so much trouble with men at that age I dread to think what havoc they could have wreaked on the male population if they had ever grown up!

House moving nightmare!

2007-11-24T12:12:00.000-08:00

Haven't had a chance to blog for ages. I am in the midst of a legal wrangle with a mortgage company after they have suddenly pulled their mortgage offer only a few days before I was due to sign contracts and move house. This is the latest in a long line of disasters and problems which have turned my latest house-move into a seemingly never-ending 16 month nightmare.

It all began when I put my house up for sale at exactly the same time as the housing market in my town suddenly died. I have endured a year of people traipsing through my home, poking in cupboards and even examining the dirty dishes in my dishwasher. I've put up with kids running riot, chasing my terrified cats, getting under the bed and in my laundry basket. I've spent so many hours hoovering, tidying and washing windows, trying to keep the place tidy, that I have vowed to live in squalor from now on! I have gone through two estate agents, have had the house up for auction twice, have had a sale fall through, have dropped the price three times and finally sold it just as I was about to despair and rent it out. I've been gazumped on the house I was buying, and ended up buying the same house from a different owner (don't ask!) - after all this I was finally starting to breathe a sigh of relief, thinking that the end was in sight.

And now this. With Christmas only a month away I am facing the possibility of having nowhere to live - or what is infinitely worse, having to move in with the parents!

Goodbye sweet book!

2007-11-10T10:27:00.000-08:00

In my last blog I was talking about what a wrench it was having to part from The Wild One in order to sell it. I have been thinking about all the lovely rare books I would have liked to keep if only it wasn't for the lure of the filthy lucre! I do envy the collector who can keep all her treasure by her side - whereas with me they are just books that pass in the night. Once I have sold them on I am full of regrets and immediately start searching for a replacement. But if I do find one you can be sure that after re-sampling their delights for a day or two, the tempation to sell again will just be too much. Guess I am just a one night stand type of girl!

Some books that I have read and then abandoned...

I'd Rather Not Gallop by Caroline Akrill (Signed
by the author)

The Wild One by Monica Edwards (First Edition)

Pony Club Camp by Patricia Leitch/Jane Eliot (First Ed)

The Ten Pound Pony by Veronica Westlake

More Ponies For Jean by Joanna Cannan (First Edition)

Janet Young Rider (republished as A Horse For the Holidays) by Patricia Leitch (First Edition)

The Island of Adventure by Enid Blyton (First Edition)

A strange ambiguity...

2007-11-08T13:31:00.000-08:00

With the imminent publication in paperback form of Silver Snaffles by Fidra Books I have been pondering upon the ambiguous response this fashion for the re-printing of rare books inspires in me. As a reader I cannot help but be excited by the fact that I may be able to get my grubby mitts on books which had previously eluded me. As a bookseller however I can only watch sadly as the sales price of my rare copies suddenly dwindle...

I am not sure how much impact these imprints actually have on collectable editions. I think that firsts will perhaps remain un-changed, after all there have been numerous re-prints of the famous five books and the first editions still command respectable prices. I think the main difference will be seen in the rare paperback /reading copy market of which I seem to specialise. Six Ponies and Fly by Night have both dropped in price for example. With Silver Snaffles, I think it may be possible that the paperbacks and tattier hardbacks with no jackets will fall in price.

And yet whilst wondering what effect these changes may have upon me, I am at the same time waiting with eager anticipation for Fidra to re-publish more of Monica Edward's books so that I can once again read that wonderful book The Wild One. The rarest by far of all the author's books, I found an extremely tatty copy in a market for about 20p and sold it for well over £200. I read it before parting with it as I thought it would probably be the last time I'd ever get the chance! It was a sad parting as I absolutely loved the book but who can turn down that sort of profit? Now thanks to Fidra I - and many others who would never have been able to - might soon be re-reading this classic. The unselfish philanthropic part of me rejoices in the fact that such brilliant books will once again be available to the mass readership. But I can't help wondering how many 20p market and charity shop treasures will soon be left for us poor booksellers...

A Book-loving Cat

2007-11-02T07:27:00.000-07:00

Rosie, my small female long-haried tortoiseshell has aquired a new vice. It's books. No, she hasn't learned to read. With a brain roughly the size of a small garden pea, it took her about seven years to learn how to open doors, so reading is just a tad beyond her. For some reason however, after being surrounded by books for many years she has just discovered that they smell, er, interesting. She has always had a strange fetish for smelly socks and shoes; in particular walking boots after they have been tramped through mounds of ripe cow-manure send her into paroxyms of delight. And now she has developed the same feeling about books. Lately I have had to rescue a few rather battered specimens which were unwisely left lying around and fell foul of her not so tender ministrations. After being rubbed against ecstatically, drooled over and chewed the poor things were shadows of their former selves.

Now books are strictly out of bounds and she has had to console herself with large overdoses of catnip. But at least the first editions are safe...

A pony book found...

2007-10-22T12:02:00.001-07:00

Hurrah! After ages of searching finally got my hands on a copy of Diana Pullein-Thompson's A Pony Found. This is the last book in the series about the Fletcher family which begins with The Ponyseekers. It is an interesting series which I loved as the setting was fairly original. The family set up The Ponyseekers, a horse-dealers which rather than just trying to make a profit aims to make sure the ponies they sell are suitable for their new owners too. There were very few pony books with horse dealers as the main characters, they were nearly always the villains!

For some reason I have never actually read the third one in this series, looking at the publishing date I was possibly a little old for pony books when it was released and was probably chasing boys at the time! Now, as an old fart, I am quite happy to read them.

So I am looking forward to sitting down and reading the entire series straight off, with the dessert course being that rarity, a pony book I haven't actually read. I have that warm tingly feeling of anticipation I always get just before reading a great book. (A feeling also inspired by opening a new box of chocs - but at least pony books don't make you fat!)

Pony Chat! New Forum Opens!

2007-10-21T04:59:00.000-07:00

This is an exciting time for the website and myself! Due to popular demand I have set up a forum for users of the website. From now on we will be able to chat about our favourite books, discuss reviews and ask questions without having to email each other. This is a new undertaking for me so I hope everyone will excuse any teething problems! You can visit the forum at: http://ponybooks.proboards78.com/index.cgi