{{short description|Genre in children's literature}} '''Pony books''', '''pony stories''' or '''pony fiction''' form a genre in children's literature of stories featuring children, teenagers, ponies and horses, and the learning of equestrian skills, especially at a pony club or riding school.

==Development of genre==

The 1877 novel ''Black Beauty'', although about a horse and not a pony, is seen as a forerunner of pony book fiction.<ref name="clarissa">{{cite web|url=http://www.collectingbooksandmagazines.com/ponybook.html|title=Pony Books: A Brief Introduction|first=Clarissa|last=Cridland|work=collectingbooksandmagazines.com|date=5 November 2010|accessdate=18 February 2012}}</ref><ref name=jenny>{{cite journal|title=Riders, Readers, Romance: A Short History of the Pony Story|first=Jenny|last=Kendrick|journal=Jeunesse: Young People, Texts, Cultures|volume=1|issue=2|date=Winter 2009|pages=183–202|doi=10.1353/jeu.2010.0012}}</ref>

Pony books themselves began to appear in the late 1920s.<ref name="clarissa"/> In 1928 British lifestyle magazine ''Country Life'' published Golden Gorse's ''The Young Rider'' which went to a second edition in 1931, and a third in 1935. In the preface to the third edition, the author wrote: "Since then the outlook on children and their ponies has changed very much for the better." She also noted an increase in equestrian pastimes: "Five children seem to be learning to ride today for one who was learning seven years ago."<ref name="clarissa"/> Many pony books today encourage the young rider to look at life from their pony's perspective, including the Connemara Pony Adventures and the Saddlestone Connemara Pony Listening School series by Irish author, Elaine Heney.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://elaineheneybooks.com/en-ie/collections/connemara-adventure-books-series | title=Connemara Adventure Books Series }}</ref>

==Critical commentary==

The pony book genre is "frequently deemed idealistic,"<ref name=darkhorse>{{cite journal|title=The Dark Horse: Ruby Ferguson and the Jill Pony Stories|last=Thiel|first=Liz|journal=The Lion and the Unicorn|volume=26|issue=1|date=January 2002|pages=112–122|doi=10.1353/uni.2002.0012}}</ref> "cater[ing] for those typical fantasies of perfect friendship with an idealized companion."{{refn|{{cite book|last=Tucker|first=Nicholas|title=The Child and the Book: A Psychological and Literary Exploration|location=Cambridge|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=1982|issue=161}}<ref name=darkhorse />}}

A critic noted in 1996 that the genre had "been relegated firmly to the sidelines".{{refn|{{cite book|last=Haymonds|first=Alison|chapter=Pony Books|title=International Companion Encyclopedia of Children's Literature|editor-first=Peter|editor-last=Hunt|location=London|publisher=Routledge|year=1996}}<ref name=darkhorse />}}

A 2009 article posed whether readers of pony-series fiction could do more than simply get another book in the series, much as a young collector of My Little Pony toys would be compelled to add to their collection.<ref name="jenny"/> The article noted an alternative view of the value of pony fiction; it introduces young readers to wider literature.{{refn|{{cite journal|last=Moss|first=Elaine|title=On the Tail of the Seductive Horse|journal=Signal|issue=19|year=1976|pages=27–30}}<ref name=jenny />}}

==Authors of pony books== {{Div col}}

* Enid Bagnold * Kitty Barne * Gillian Baxter * Judith M. Berrisford * Jeanne Betancourt * Bonnie Bryant * Joanna Cannan<ref name=pt/> * Joanna Campbell * Peter Clover * Primrose Cumming * Walter Farley * Ruby Ferguson * Mary Gervaise * Golden Gorse * Marguerite Henry * Katharine Hull and Pamela Whitlock * Will James * Patricia Leitch * Jenny Oldfield * K. M. Peyton * Christine Pullein-Thompson<ref name=pt/> * Diana Pullein-Thompson<ref name=pt/> * Josephine Pullein-Thompson<ref name=pt>{{Cite web|title=Josephine Pullein-Thompson Collection|url=https://collections.reading.ac.uk/special-collections/collections/josephine-pullein-thompson-collection/|access-date=2020-06-23|website=Collections - Special Collections|language=en-US}}</ref> * Stacy Gregg * Allen W. Seaby * Pat Smythe * Mary Treadgold

{{Div col end}}

==See also== {{Portal bar |Children's literature |Horses }} <!-- delete "bar" when there are about two ordinary See also -->

==References== {{Reflist}}

** Category:Children's books