middle readers 

What a pleasure to discover the author of the bestselling novel Wonder has turned her pen to what I’d flippantly call a gothic western, brimful of her hallmark themes of empathy and friendship. Taking inspiration from tintypes and daguerrotypes prized by photography collectors, R.J. Palacio set her story in Boneville in 1858. Silas Bird lives with his father on their farm, until in the dead of night a posse of strangers demands he come away with them on mysterious business. He sets out to find them on a strange pony with a bone-white face and his steadfast friend Mittenwool, who happens to be a ghost. Their quest involves facing some real and unreal challenges along the way. I loved the relationship between Silas and his clever father, and how Mittenwool’s backstory becomes a larger strand of the narrative. And Pony’s too (somehow all the grander names for him never seem to stick). It’ll suit readers who like animal stories, and authors like Katherine Rundell and Michael Morpurgo.

Penguin Books 2021