The Red Pony is not at all what I expected, and that's not a bad thing or a good thing. It's just what it is--completely different than what the title led me to believe. First of all, the red pony appears only in the first chapter or I should probably say in the first story. Throughout the book, we follow a 10 year old boy, Jody; however, I felt that the four chapters felt more like different storylines with the same character, Jody, being the common thread. The story is interesting also in that I expected a coming of age story, but the growth of Jody's maturity is very, very subtle, almost missed, and I think some argue that there is no growth or change at all. I tend to disagree. I just think that the growth and the change aren't very apparent throughout although they exist and certainly in the last scene. The focus seem to be more on the struggles of that young age and even more on the struggles to understand and accept the experience of loss and not knowing how to navigate the feelings of anger and grief that arise as a result of these loses. I think the focus is on the process until one gets to that point of maturity and change and not in the final result. Possibly, this is why we don't get to see Jody having this big aha! moment we usually expect to see in a coming of age story and we clearly see the change in the character, but we do see him struggle with his child imagination and daydreaming versus the reality, with the authoritarian figures in his life versus his desire to be independent and grown up, with the sense of loss and grief, and not having an adequate understanding of how to process that pain, it results in angry feelings that seek to destroy. This is not my favorite book by Steinbeck, but I still loved it. I think, John Steinbeck does a great job in capturing the spirit of a 10 year old child who lacks the mental capacity to process certain emotions and life experiences and is learning for the first time heavy concepts about life, death, loss, sacrifice, human fallibility, aging, the value of human life, loss of trust and naivity, and more... Loss is the key word in this book. There is loss everywhere you turn.

This book can generate some good and interesting discussions. On the other hand, it is also a book that can be tough to read due to some quite graphic scenes of animal cruelty. It is certainly not a children's book at all. The title and the cover are cute and misleading.