Stephanie Jane reviewed Pinto! by M. J. Evans
A middle grade pony story
4 stars
Pinto is a fictionalised account of a genuine journey that took place across all the mainland states of America just over a century ago, in the years 1912 to 1915. M J Evans has extensively researched all the contemporary material she could find relating to the Overland Westeners epic expedition and chose to tell their story through the voice of the only horse to complete the journey, Pinto. I thought this was a lovely idea which attracted me to read the book even though I don't usually pick up middle grade books. In fact, I usually forgot all about my not being of the target audience because Pinto! felt just as interesting a read to me now as it would have done in my pony-mad phase several decades ago.
Pinto himself comes across as a memorable character. He is incorrigibly vain, but is also diligent and hard-working and manages …
Pinto is a fictionalised account of a genuine journey that took place across all the mainland states of America just over a century ago, in the years 1912 to 1915. M J Evans has extensively researched all the contemporary material she could find relating to the Overland Westeners epic expedition and chose to tell their story through the voice of the only horse to complete the journey, Pinto. I thought this was a lovely idea which attracted me to read the book even though I don't usually pick up middle grade books. In fact, I usually forgot all about my not being of the target audience because Pinto! felt just as interesting a read to me now as it would have done in my pony-mad phase several decades ago.
Pinto himself comes across as a memorable character. He is incorrigibly vain, but is also diligent and hard-working and manages to keep himself remarkably cheerful despite all the obstacles the Overland Westerners must overcome. In reading Pinto's words, his narration style sometimes reminded me of Anna Sewell's horsey classic, Black Beauty, so I was delighted to spot, in Evans' epilogue, that she had indeed loved and been inspired by that book too. I feel that Pinto! would be a great choice to gift to horsey readers of pretty much any age and the book would also appeal to readers of travel stories and light history books.