No Small Thing - Softcover

Ghent, Natale

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0006392784 ISBN 13: 9780006392781

Publisher: HarperTrophy, 2004

Synopsis

When twelve-year-old Nathaniel and his two sisters, Cid and Queenie, discover an ad for a free pony in the paper, they can hardly believe their luck. The pony is theirs, as long as they can afford to take care of it. But what will their mother say?

Nat knows things are hard for his mom; his dad walked out on them four years ago. But having a pony would help Nat and Cid stop bickering and it would mean so much to Queenie. When Nat’s mother lets them keep it, life is still not easy, but at the end of each day, Nat knows his pony is waiting from him. Until a fire destroys the barn...

Winner of the Hackmatack Book Award, No Small Thing was also a Silver Birch Honour Book and shortlisted for the Canadian Library Assocation’s Book of the Year for Children Award.

About this title

About the Author

Natale Ghent is an award-winning journalist and the author of No Small Thing, also published in the US and the UK, and The Book of Living and Dying, a novel for young adult readers. No Small Thing has been critically acclaimed in Canada and internationally. Nominated for four Canadian children’s choice awards, including the CLA Book of the Year for Children award and the Silver Birch award (Honour Book), No Small Thing was also chosen as a Junior Library Guild selection in the US and a Borders Original Voice. Born in Brookfield, Illinois, Natale Ghent moved to Canada as a small child. She lives with her family in Toronto.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Ma keeps her back to me. I can see she isn't going to budge, which might explain what I say next.

"You have to let us keep him. That pony is the best thing to happen to us in years. If Dad were here, he'd let us keep him."

This makes Ma turn around, all right, and she looks at me like she's staring at the devil himself. She doesn't yell these next words. She spits them through her teeth.

"I don’t want to hear another word. You take that pony back tomorrow."

"Please, Ma—"

"Get out and leave me alone!"

Ma's words hit me like broken glass. I feel the anger rise up inside me, and before I know what’s happening, I'm screaming. "I hate you! I won't take the pony back! Not tomorrow or ever! Dad left because of you, and I don't blame him, you old witch!"

Ma stares at me, her jaw dropped, the wooden spoon she was using to stir the cocoa still in the air. Queenie and Cid just stand there, their faces all shocked and disbelieving. I slam out the mudroom door and stumble down the stairs in my bare feet. I feel like a big fist is hitting me in the stomach. I think I’m going to throw up. I start to run and I keep running, past the corner store and through the park. I run past rows and rows of houses that all look the same, past the church and the jailhouse. I run until I'm far away from everything and my lungs feel like they're going to burst.

I keep running, but no matter how fast I go, I can't outrun the image of Ma's face. The terrible words stab at my brain over and over. I collapse on the lawn of a house where the windows are dark, and then I start to cry like I have never cried before. I can't stop my body from shaking. "I'm not like my f-father. I'm not like my father."

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NO SMALL THING by Natale Ghent. Copyright (c) 2005 by Natale Ghent. Published by Candlewick Press, Inc., Cambridge, MA.

About this edition

• Publisher: HarperTrophy
• Publication date: 2004
• ISBN 10: 0006392784
• ISBN 13: 9780006392781
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• Number of pages: 440