Description:
This book is here as a warning to others.

Nearly every horse lover I know was encouraged to read this book as a child. "Oh," the teacher thought, "The Red Pony is a classic and it's about horses. Susie should read it." And nearly every person I know who read it as a kid refused to read Steinbeck for decades later, thoroughly traumatized by this book. It is brutal and tragic - not in an unrealistic way, not in a way that needs to be hidden under a rug, but in a way that a 9-year-old animal-loving child is not prepared to handle.

Jody is given a pony to care for and train by his father, a rancher. He names him Gabilan and works with the pony every day with the help of one of the ranch hands, Billy Buck. But, the pony is caught out in bad weather and comes down with a nasty case of strangles. They try to save him, including performing a pretty nasty tracheotomy, but they cannot and the pony dies. Jody finds buzzards feeding on the pony's carcass.

It's an important book, but the imagery is thorough and nasty and it is not for kids, even if it is on your school's reading list, unless you want those kids to loathe and avoid Steinbeck for decades.

Accuracy:   How would you rate the accuracy of the horse content in this book? painfully inaccurate   [login to vote]   detailed and exquisitely accurate Quantity:   How extensive is the horse content in this book? minimal or background   [login to vote]   horsey Quality:   Rate the overall quality of this book. waste of time   [login to vote]   worth a worldwide search

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