Review: Karen Bush - The Five Pound Pony

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It’s a great pity that pony annuals these days don’t tend to feature short stories, because this collection would have been lapped up by the editors of the pony annuals that appeared in the 1970s and 1980s. The Five Pound Pony is a collection of eight pony stories, each followed by a short article on the background to the story, and giving you ideas of what you can do, and links you can follow, to take the stories further.


All of the stories have an interesting twist to them: if you’re reasonably sharp you’ll probably work out what’s going to happen before the end, but that doesn’t necessarily mean you won’t enjoy the stories, because Karen Bush does have a way of hooking you into the miniature worlds she creates. 

The common theme of the stories is children’s longing for ponies, and what they do to fulfil it. There are model ponies, and hobby horses, and ponies you adopt. It’s difficult to pick out particular stories because I enjoyed them all, but I was very struck by The Pony Rescue, which is about a boy bullied at school, and his resolute refusal to mention his love of ponies because he knows he’ll be mocked for it. This story does have a particularly neat resolution.

This is a very readable collection of stories, and well worth the bargainous £1.81.

~  0  ~


Karen Bush: The Five Pound Pony
Available in ebook format only
Amazon: £1.81 (free on Kindleunlimited)

Karen Bush’s website

Age of main character: varies, as this is a collection of short stories, but most characters seem to be in the first years of senior school

Themes: again, vary, but nothing the wary parent needs to be concerned about.

Thanks to the author for sending me a copy of this book.


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