Pony in the Schoolhouse

I think we all have parts of our childhood that stand out in our memories. Certain events or snapshots of time, that for some reason you have never forgotten. For instance, I remember sharing a bedroom with my sister, when I was probably, what, three or four? It's probably my earliest memory, actually. I woke up in the middle of the night and saw what I was sure was a monster! It was right in the center of the room, and it was going to kill us both, I was sure of it! So I called for my sister. "Donna! Donna, there's a monster in our room!" She woke up, annoyed at me (I remember her being really angry at me - I should explain that she is 10 years older than me, so she was 13 or 14 at the time). She turned on the light, and I looked over, all afraid, certain that the monster was going to jump up and eat each of us! But it was just a kid sized rocking chair, with some clothes draped over it. Hee. Sorry about that, Donna.

Anyway, this book is one of the other things that I remember really clearly. I have always been a big reader, starting from when I first learned to read. I was the best at reading aloud in, what, kindedgarten? First grade? Whenever we learned how to read. And I read every day on the school bus, on the way to and from school. And this book, Pony in the Schoolhouse, by Miska Miles, was the one I remember reading most often. I wish I knew how often I checked it out of the library. It must have been a lot.

The book is about a little girl, named Amy Ford. Amy hates school, because there is a bully there named Rowdie Benson, who loves to tease her about her red hair. She hates having red hair, and wishes it was brown.

But as much as Amy hates Rowdie Benson, that's easily as much as she loves an old pony called Star. Star belongs to Mrs. Pettiboy, and sometimes Amy helps her by stopping by and feeding Star. Star is too old to do farm work anymore, but she would make a great pony for Amy and her brother, Gordie, to ride back and forth to school. You see, this was a long time ago, and Amy and Gordie had to walk two miles from their farm to the one room schoolhouse.

One day as Amy is walking home from school, she finds a leaf on the ground, and it's the prettiest shade of brown. And then she realizes - that leaf is the same color as her hair! So she asks her Mom if she can get a dress made that same color, because then she could wear it to school, and horrible Rowdie Benson would see that her hair really wasn't red! It's brown! (I added the horrible - I'm sure she didn't call him that.)

So her Mom orders the material, but oh no. When it comes in, it's a black and green plaid, because the store didn't have any material the color of the leaf. Poor Amy.

But! Suddenly, out of the blue, Mrs. Pettiboy calls and asks if she'd like to have Star to keep, for her very own! She asks her Dad, and he says yes, so suddenly Amy doesn't care about the color of her dress.

So she and Gordie are going to ride Star to school, but wouldn't you know it? Star ran off in the night. :( But it's okay, because Star turns up outside of the school while the kids are there, and Amy goes out and ties her to the hitching rail.

But here comes the next problem. It's winter, and there is a big storm - and it turns into a blizzard! Amy is so worried about Star, standing out there in the snow and the wind, tied to the rail. She'll freeze to death! But of course the teacher won't let her go out to get Star, because she'd get lost, and then Amy would freeze to death, right along with Star! But Rowdie Benson, that boy that Amy has hated for so long, comes up with a plan. He'll tie a rope around his waist, and the teacher will have the other end of it in the school, and he'll go out, find the hitching rail, and bring Star into the schoolhouse! Which he does, so Star stands in the corner of the school room, next to Amy. And then they run out of firewood, so they have to burn their school desks.

But of course it all ends happily, with all of the kids - and Star - making it home safely, and when the weather clears, Amy and Gordie ride Star to school, and she doesn't care anymore whether Rowdie calls her "Red" and teases her about her hair. Because she has Star, so all is right with the world.

Can you see why I fell in love with this book as a kid? It has everything! A horse, a snowstorm, burning school desks. It's thrilling! Or at least it was to me, and that's why I still remember it so fondly all these years later.

Last week I looked online for the title of this book, and what do you know? It was on eBay. And it was only $3 - and even with shipping it was only $5.50. So I bought it. It arrived in my mailbox last night, and I happily read it again after i had fed the dogs their dinner, and I relived a cherished memory from my childhood.

This book is the first one I loved. I'm so glad that I now own it.

Pony in the Schoolhouse
by Miska Miles
Illustrated by Erik Blegvad
Published in 1964