Book Review: Winona’s Pony Cart

[osprey_archer]

Aside from the ten main books, the Betsy-Tacy series includes three spin-offs: Winona’s Pony Cart, Carney’s House Party, and Emily of Deep Valley. I may not have time for the latter two, but Winona’s Pony Cart is quite short so I gave it a reread. This one is definitely slighter than the other Betsy-Tacys, which generally have a bit more heft to them, but it’s still fun.

Winona Root is the youngest of three girls, a lively, tomboyish lass: “the only son I’ve got,” Winona’s father says, which is what Betsy’s father says of Betsy’s little sister Margaret, who is not tomboyish at all. Maybe it’s just a thing for a father who has only daughters to decide that one is his boy?

Winona is generally up to all sorts of mischief. Here, she invites an extra dozen children to her birthday party after her mother has already sent out the invitations. If I was giving a birthday party and a dozen extra children showed up, I would die, but Mrs. Root just sends Winona’s big sister to the store for more ice cream - and heaves a sigh of relief when one of the Syrian children brings a baklava cake as a present.

Although Winona already has a dog, she hopes and yearns for a pony. When a pony drawing a cart appears at her party, she thinks that her dreams have come true! But alas, her father only hired the pony for the party, and when Winona realizes, she collapses in heartbreak. Her parents discuss the issue: Mrs. Root is afraid that pony will only make Winona more wild and tomboyish, but Mr. Root suggests that the responsibility might settle Winona down a bit.

So Winona gets her pony, and she drives her pony cart all over town, which sounds like amazing wish fulfillment if you read this book at the proper age of about eight. Who among us didn't want to drive all over town in an adorable little pony cart!

Comments

[littlerhymes]

She got a pony... LITERALLY got a pony. Wow.

[osprey_archer]

I was contemplating why Lovelace decided to write this book - perhaps she got a lot of letters from children who loved Winona? And I think the sheer wish-fulfillment joy of a story about a child who literally gets a pony probably is what tipped the scales for telling this particular story.

[lokifan]

INCREDIBLE.

[osprey_archer]

Hard to beat the wish-fulfillment of your own pony cart!!

[asakiyume]

This makes me think of my sister-in-law, who had a pony from...well I don't know from when, but let's say adolescence. By the time I met her (in her twenties), she also had a pony cart! She had trained her pony to pull the cart.

Alas, I don't think she has it anymore...

So does Winona live out in the country? Are her parents going to stable this pony at their house or---?

(I am also surprised to learn that Winona is a name people had back in the first half of the 20th cent. Live and learn! I only heard of if for the first time with Winona Ryder)

[osprey_archer]

Oh, did you get to ride in the pony cart? It sounds so fun.

No, Winona lives in town, but in the early 1900s when a lot of people have a little stable out back instead of a garage. The pony will go in the stable with the horse who pulls the family surrey.

[asakiyume]

No, I never got a ride in the cart! I think when I first met her, she hadn't yet bought it, and when I came back next, IDK, maybe there just wasn't a chance? [ETA: which contradicts what I said above, I realize... basically, until we *lived* in England, my experiences there were brief visits, and I'm not sure at what point the pony cart figured. I remember photos of Sarah with the cart, though!]

*nodding* re: horse arrangements in the olden days.