Pony ex machina.
This is based on a story of the Skidi band of the Pawnee Indians and retold by the author. I'm not sure why she chose to tell this particular story, or if she's Native American.
Basically, there was a a poor boy in an Indian camp. He didn't have a pony and he wanted a pony like the other boys', so he made one out of clay and then took care of it as if it was a real pony. At some point, he is alone with the clay pony and his entire camp wants to go after some buffalo, but they can't find him, so they just lave without him. When he gets back to camp, he freaks out because he doesn't know where everybody is. Then the clay pony comes alive and leads him to his people. The war chief sees him, and says there are some people attacking them so they need the boy and his pony to help fight them. The pony, who is part of Mother Earth, says, "Arrows can never pierce the earth, so cover yourself in dirt." He does that, and they win, and he kills a lot of buffalo in the hunt, and later he becomes a chief like the pony had said. One night, eventually the pony has to go back to the earth. The end.
I'm not entirely certain what the message is. The author believes that the story shows that anybody can gain honor by being humble and constant. I guess he's constant in that he takes care of this clay pony like it's real. It's not like he's worshiping the earth or anything like that, so the whole thing seems very deus ex machina. There's no reason for the pony to help him. There was no reason for him to believe that the pony would help him. So he was just basically playing with a toy that he made himself and then the toy became real, Velveteen-Rabbit-style. Unless there's some kind of tradition of making ponies out of mud and treating them as if they're real, and it does not imply that there is.
So I'm not sure the author's message comes across as clearly as she hoped. Not being that familiar with Native Americans, I don't know how accurate the depiction of them is in here. There's definitely a lot of people with feathers. That seems to be something that many modern Indians object to. The war chief has feathers, but that's reasonable (I would think) and it actually specifically says that the boy puts feathers on the pony when he's a chief. There's a lot of vague stuff in it but it's not glorifying the Native Americans which is kind of nice. I have no idea what the original story was like either, so I can't say how true it is to the original story, or how accurate the original story is to the real beliefs of the Pawnee Indians. It's hard to deal with books like this because I don't understand the culture from which it comes so I can't say how true to that culture it is.
As a book, discarding all of the culture, as much as I can (which is not very much at all), pretending it's a story about some other unknown Iron Age or Stone Age culture, it's just a weird mythology. It doesn't make a lot of sense, and it's not terribly interesting. There's no character development. That's pretty much all I can say. I don't get a strong message out of this; I just get kind of a shrug.
Message
Treat inanimate objects with respect and the forces of nature will give you magical powers.
Illustrators
Publication Year
1988
Age Range
4-8
Number of Pages
28
Number of words on a typical page
75
Amazon Link
https://www.amazon.com/Mud-Pony-Reading-Rainbow-Books/dp/0590415263
Goodreads Link
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1318176.The_Mud_Pony
I actually met the author as
I actually met the author as a child and have an autographed copy of this book. Caron Lee Cohen is a man, not a woman, and is, himself, a Skidi Indian. He is a very kind, humble man, and some 30ish years later I still remember my interaction with him because he was such a lovely human being. This is his version of the story told to him growing up. It is a Skidi legend that has been passed down from generation to generation. Before you go accusing the author of appropriating or ripping off someone else's culture or not knowing what they're talking about, or deciding that another culture's legends "have no point," perhaps do some research. Your review is naive and lacking research at best, and culturally insensitive and rude at worst. I encourage you to research the Skidi Indians, their history, their legends, and their culture, then re-read this book through a different lens. I'm betting if you shift your perspective you'll have a new appreciation for this book, the legend, and Skidi culture. At least, that's my hope.
Whoops. Nope. Just checked
Whoops. Nope. Just checked the book, and it was the illustrator, Shonto Begay, that I met and have an autograph from, not Caron Lee Cohen. Just thought I'd clarify that.
Huh?
I never accused the author of ripping off or appropriating anything. I literally say I have no idea if the author is Native American or not, or how accurate the legend is. I also didn't use the words "have no point." I said it didn't make a lot of sense, and that it wasn't interesting, when viewed through a lens that ignores the culture. Part of my review process is determining what the author is trying to say by publishing a particular story. Since it is unclear, based on the published book, whether it is an authentic story, and I don't have the time to research every culture on the planet, I take the story at face value, without any cultural baggage.
Interesting Review
I am Skidi Pawnee and I have always loved this story. From my understanding, this story is about overcoming adversity. Yes, the boy was poor and wanted a pony. However, his pony did not come to life because he wanted one; it came alive to take him back to his family and show the tribe to not discount those who have less than them. In another version I heard, he was being raised by his old grandmother, which would show why they were poor and why they were without so much. His character develops as he realizes that he has more worth than he thought. In the beginning, he was just a poor boy who was pretty much ostracised. In the end, he learns that his "power" does not come from the horse, but from the inside. He builds up self-confidence throughout the story.
My Atpiat (grandfather) was raised by his grandparents in the early 1900s and lived with Pawnee scouts that worked with the US Army to find surrounding tribes. He told my family that children and/or babies were often left behind. Growing up with a Pawnee father, I know that if you are not ready to go, you get left.
The chiefs in my tribe were the holders of our sacred bundles (similar to a medicine man). Since this chief was a holder of a sacred bundle, then he would have known what this young boy was supposed to do for the tribe. I could assume that the pony was able to speak to him because he also had the "power" (i.e., he was given the right to have a sacred bundle by Atius- God).
The vagueness of the story probably comes from the "mystery" of the Pawnee people. My dad was just telling me the other day that people found us to be mysterious.
Lastly, I do not know the author's ancestral background, but I do know Shonto Begay is Navajo from Arizona. The pictures are surprisingly accurate. The only thing that would be different is the boy's haircut as the men typically had a mohawk-esque hairstyle.
Thanks for your perspective
I appreciate you taking the time to fill in some of the gaps in my understanding of this story.
The art alone is worth it
I was fortunate to have a steady influx of books as a child, and this is still one of my favorites. The illustrations alone are breathtaking and make the book well worth it, even if this rendition of the tale is simple. As a kid, I always hated how many children's books had truly ugly, cartoonish illustrations, so I found publications like this refreshing. Finding picture books with high quality writing *and* art is a challenge, but I'll make an exception for one if the other is excellent.