A boy growing up on a California ranch learns hard lessons about life, loss and responsibility
A boy, a pony and a ranch
Jody Tiflin is a ten-year-old boy growing up on his family's ranch in the Salinas Valley of California, where life follows the rhythms of the seasons and the demands of hard work. His father, Carl, is stern and strict, and Jody admires the ranch hand Billy Buck, who seems to know everything about horses. One day his father gives Jody a red pony colt of his own.
Who will enjoy it
Readers aged about twelve and up, including adults, who appreciate short, beautifully written classics about childhood and nature.
What you will get
A short, beautifully written classic about growing up on a ranch, full of quiet observation, natural beauty and hard lessons about life.
The Red Pony Facts: Pages, Genre and Setting
Genre
Classics · Ranch life · Growing up · California
Length
112 pages · ≈ 3 h
More about this book
Jody names the pony Gabilan and devotes himself to caring for it, dreaming of the day he will ride it. But when the pony falls ill, Jody learns that even the people he trusts most cannot control nature. The later stories show Jody meeting an old man who has come home to the hills where he was born, waiting for the birth of a new colt, and listening to his grandfather's stories about leading a wagon train west.
Steinbeck writes with great clarity and tenderness about the landscape, the animals and the small dramas of ranch life. The stories are short but powerful, and they deal honestly with death, including the loss of animals, which some young readers may find upsetting. The book explores growing up, the gap between dreams and reality, and the changing American West. It is often read in schools as an introduction to Steinbeck.
Moving, quiet and beautifully written, a fine introduction to John Steinbeck. Readers who enjoy it might go on to Of Mice and Men or The Pearl. About 112 pages in the Penguin paperback.
Of Mice and Men
Cannery Row
Old Yeller
Misty of Chincoteague
Rilla of Ingleside
Black Beauty
Little Women
Bonjour Tristesse
Death of a Salesman
A Farewell to Arms
The Awakening
Tender Is the Night