Customer Reviews

Season of Ponies

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is such a magical novel. I hadn't read it since I was a kid, so I remembered nothing. However, once I started reading, I found I could not put it down. It's a rather simple story, with many faerie tale elements, but the style and the depth of the characters make it unique. It's about a lonely girl named Pamela who lives at Oak Farm House with her two aunts. When her father has to leave for awhile, he gives her a necklace which he says might possibly have magical powers. Through this amulet she meets a boy, whom she simply calls Ponyboy, and he calls her Girl. Names to them do not need to matter. Ponyboy is called just that because of the herd of ponies that follow him. Like Dickon from "The Secret Garden," Ponyboy is an animal charmer and has a way with people. The horses are magical as well, and with them, the two children have an incredible summer, doing many adventurous things, which most people can only dream of.

As a child, I read and reread the Season of Ponies, then tried to entice my friends to read it. It's hard to describe the author's ability to so subtly weave the magic, and the belief in that magic, into the thin novel, illustrated with just pen and ink. But surprisingly enough, the colors are what I remember most, the colors the story evokes with the hope of a beautiful magic. Now I have a daughter, and with some effort I tracked down a copy and read it to her. And again, after all these years, I was as affected by the magic of the beautiful cloud ponies as she was. The writing and the story are wonderfully rich and riveting.

Lonely Pamela lives on Oak Farm with her two aunts because her father is always traveling for his work. After her father breaks yet another promise to take her away, he gives her an amulet that was passed down from her grandmother. Soon after, Pamela meets Ponyboy, a wild boy who lives in the woods with a herd of dainty pastel ponies. They spend wonderful summer days practicing circus tricks on the ponies. When Ponyboy goes into the sinister swamp to rescue the smallest pony, Pamela is forced to face her worst fears and things are never the same for her at Oak Farm.

I first read this as a child and the image of beautiful blue, pink, gray and gold ponies prancing across the meadow has never left me. Truly magical.

I have never forgotten this book since I read it as a child. The multicolored ponies and the wooded farm filled my imagination for years. What a wonderful book.

This book has everything girls between the ages of 9 and 13 want in a book. There is a young girl-forced to live with two old maide aunts, a mystery--a locket with strange magical symbols given to her by her father and some very mysterious ponies and a boy that appear magically out of the mist one summer day. Of course, a of romance blooms between the girl and the pony boy as they begin to solve the mystery of the locket. Great summer reading for tweens.

I read most of Zilpha Keatley Snyder's books when I was much younger (pre-teen) & LOVED them all, esp Season of Ponies & The Changeling. She whisks you away to another world and I really needed that at the time (not that I don't still love 'getting away' now). I highly recommend this book as well as her others, I remember reading several about the Stanley family, Headless Cupid etc. Another author to pick up would be Joan Aiken, esp her Wolves of Willoughby Chase series. Those had to be 2 of my favorite authors growing up.

As a kid of about 12, I went through a "Zilpha Keatley Snyder" phase where I tried to get my hands on everything that the library had or could get that was written by her. I read this book after I'd already read and fallen in love with several of Snyder's books dealing with occult or magical themes, including "The Headless Cupid", "The Witches of Worm" and "The Egypt Game". I thought this book was very prettily written but compared to the others, it's a bit more simplistic, and obviously one of the author's earlier works.

The plot involves a lonely young girl, Pamela, who is forced against her wishes to spend the summer with older, boring relatives. However, her summer is transformed when she meets a magical herd of ponies (in a variety of rainbow colors - one wonders if the "My Little Pony" creators copped an idea from Snyder's book) and a mysterious pony-charming boy, sort of a Peter Pan type, who looks after them. Pamela spends her summer playing with the pony boy and the ponies, and faces a crisis at the end when the smallest pony is lost and must be rescued. I probably would have enjoyed this book more as a child if I'd been into horses, but alas, I was not. It was a nice story, nevertheless, but not as interesting or exciting to me as some of Snyder's other books. I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys stories about horses and fantasy.

I read this book as a 10 year old and still have very fond memories of it. I was so happy I found a copy for my granddauthter to enjoy.

I read this book till the pages fell out as a child! I was a horse crazy girl and loved everything "horsy". This fantasy story gave my friends and I hours of reading time, and hours of fantasy play time as we acted out the stories in the book.

I was very pleased with Book Rescue LLC as I received the book faster than expected and it arrived neatly packaged. Thanks for the memories!

I wish this book was still in print! It left a lasting impression on me,it litterally kept me company!