"Giddyup"

Children's Books

Giddyup

‘Noni the Pony’ and ‘Rosie’s Magic Horse’

From "Rosie's Magic Horse"

By PAMELA PAUL

Published: February 13, 2013

Horse fiction is a staple among school-age readers, particularly girls, but for some reason picture books about horses are less common. This makes two new picture books, “Noni the Pony” and “Rosie’s Magic Horse,” welcome additions to the genre. Each demonstrates the pleasures of horses and ponies for children whose feet do not yet reach the stirrups.

NONI THE PONY

Written and illustrated by Alison Lester

32 pp. Beach Lane Books. $15.99. (Picture book; ages 2 to 5)

ROSIE’S MAGIC HORSE

By Russell Hoban

Illustrated by Quentin Blake

40 pp. Candlewick Press. $15.99. (Picture book; ages 4 to 8)

Enlarge This Image

From "Noni the Pony"

Alison Lester, an Australian author-illustrator and one of that country’s inaugural children’s laureates (along with Boori Monty Pryor), has written a number of books about both hoofed varieties. In her most recent, “Noni the Pony,” an unabashedly sweet and simple tale about a happy pony, her affection and easy familiarity with these four-legged favorites shine through.

“Noni the Pony is friendly and funny.

Her shimmering tail is the color of honey.”

Thus begins the story of the dappled Noni, related in laid-back couplets that work perfectly for young children. The light rhyme is occasionally mechanistic (“Noni the Pony is gentle and kind, and never lets anyone get left behind”), but the target audience will appreciate its simple cadences, which allow them to predict the rhyming words and to participate in the pleasures of the story. And Noni’s story is all about pleasures – “trotting and prancing” and “the ladies next door” who always “moo while she’s dancing.”

Lester’s cheerful illustrations nicely match the text, yet offer welcome surprises. There’s something amusing about Noni’s oversimplified movements, from her squirrel-like leap on the cover to her curled-up-like-a-kitty finale.

Noni and her friends, Dave Dog and Coco the Cat, “ambush each other and play hide-and-seek,” and on occasion even the carefree little pony gets spooked: “When the leaves rustle and sigh in the breeze, Noni thinks monsters are shaking the trees.” But being in the company of friends manages to calm her into a bedtime snuggle.

Sheer exuberance prevails in “Rosie’s Magic Horse,” a delightful picture book, published posthumously, by Russell Hoban (“Bedtime for Frances,” “The Sea-Thing Child”). Quentin Blake, best known for his contemporary illustrations of Roald Dahl’s work, is a fine choice to complement Hoban’s witty and original prose. His doodled ink-and-watercolor illustrations, rich with humor and whimsy, recall the work of William Steig. And the similarity is echoed in the offbeat text.  As with “Noni,” there is a leaping gallop on the front cover, in this case a horse caught in mid-air, with a young girl astride his back.

The story is inventive from the very first pages, when it becomes apparent that the narrator is in fact a Popsicle stick. Carelessly tossed to the ground after his surrounding icicle is eaten, the stick contemplates its circumstance: “ ‘The sweetness is gone,’ said the stick. ‘No more sweetness.’ For a long time, nothing happened.” And then something – neither the stick nor readers will expect – does.

A girl named Rosie, a collector as it happens, picks up the discarded ice-pop stick (drawn with a forlorn look on its “face”).  It turns out the numerous sticks in her collection each have a consciousness, and all are pessimists too. “Without our ice-pops, we are nothing,” the eldest stick tells the newcomer, who nonetheless dreams of being something more. He dreams of being a horse. And this rouses the other sticks from their downtrodden resignation.

Rosie has a dream too. She wishes her stick collection was instead a hoard of treasure so she could help her parents, who can’t pay the bills.  The story shows how those disparate wishes meld into dreams come true. It would be unfair to give away what happens as the plot, fantastical and delicious, veers and soars.

Suffice it to say the stick becomes known as Stickerino. The heroine triumphs. There is an ice-pop mountain. Flying ice-pop sticks can wreak a startling degree of havoc (especially on inconvenient pirates). All ends well when you don’t question your dreams.