Quicksand Pony - Hardcover

Lester, Alison

3.94

324 ratings by Goodreads

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0395937493 ISBN 13: 9780395937495

Publisher: HMH Books for Young Readers, 1998

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'Biddy, I'm sorry, we're going to have to leave her.' 'What?' Biddy struggles out of the quicksand. 'You can't leave her! The tide's coming in. She'll drown!' But the pony is trapped and Biddy is forced to go on without her. The next day the only signs of Bella area hoof prints in the sand...with small footprints and the paw marks of a dog. Who has rescued Bella? Who could be so small and be alone on this remote beach? Biddy's search takes her into wild secret country where she discovers the truth about a mysterious disappearance that happened many years ago. Alison Lester's picture books are loved by families around the world. In this gripping adventure story, set in the Australian bush she knows so well, she comes into her own as a writer and a born storyteller.

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About the Author:

Australian author Alison Lester is perhaps best known for her picture books. However, she captivated her audience with her first novel, The Quicksand Pony. In a starred review, School Library Journal called it “a gripping adventure story, a tale of survival, an engaging mystery, a touching animal story, and a family saga.”

From School Library Journal:

Grade 4-7-How exciting to read a novel for this audience that is so rich and multilayered. It is a gripping adventure story, a tale of survival, an engaging mystery, a touching animal story, and a family saga. All of these elements are held together by a wonderful sense of place and incorporate important yet subtly delivered themes of resilience, independence, and dependence. The opening chapter tells of a bereft young woman who chooses to leave behind her life and family in town to raise her son alone in the remote Australian headlands. With a shift forward nine years, readers meet a new character, 10-year-old Biddy, who is allowed for the first time to muster and drive the cattle home with her parents. When her beloved horse is caught in quicksand, Biddy is devastated that she must leave Bella, with only a slim hope that the animal will somehow get free. Returning the next day to the desolate beach, the child finds that the horse has escaped, with help provided by a set of small human footprints. Her search for Bella takes her into a wild, secret country where she discovers the truth about the mother and child's mysterious disappearance nine years earlier. The story shifts back and forth between Biddy and the boy until their meeting near the novel's conclusion when Joe's loneliness, Biddy's search for her horse, and their mutual curiosity bring them together. Australian idioms and bush customs are explained in context. This book will be easy to recommend to readers of varied interests.
Connie Tyrrell Burns, Mahoney Middle School, South Portland, ME
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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