A great read, but a tough sell: Pony is a psychospiritual Western epic about grief marketed to 12 year olds. The story is about a boy whose father is abducted by outlaws, so he sets off after them on a mysterious pony with a skull white face. The boy can see ghosts, and often receives help from the dead in one way or another as he progresses through his journey. This is a book less about plot however, and more about the big questions, the big themes, so to speak.

This is a better, more original story than Palacio's massive hit "Wonder", but I sympathize with her publishers. Pony is a strange, dark, deeply personal historical novel for kids. The striking but creepy cover and the vague title do not help it's marketability in the slightest.

I'm sure some would rather Palacio churn out feel good, Wonderesque tear jerkers for the rest of her career, but even so--this is undoubtedly a great work!

I give it 4.5 stars, very ambitious and it fell just short of the "classic kids book" mark for me.