Description Share Post The Shadow Pony Olivia Wakeford, with illustrations by David Litchfield (Harper Collins) Evan and his mum have moved to Wales, following her separation from Evan’s Dad. His Grandad is staying with them after a fall. With a school trip to a disused coal mine in the offing, Evan is anxious. He is uncomfortable in the dark, but nevertheless goes along, as he must. Sure enough, the trip is eventful and Evan suffers a panic attack (or was it?). The trip also seems be a catalyst for a lot of Evan’s life starting to go wrong. His Mum’s boyfriend and his daughter Melly move in and Melly’s cat doesn’t get on with Evan’s dog Okie. Furthermore, Kai, the school bully, is still picking on Evan. Worse of all however, Evan is increasingly worried about his Grandad, who has started to behave strangely. Grandad won’t talk about his past, particularly the loss of a close friend and his life as a coal miner. Evan begins a school project about the pit ponies that worked in the mines and for which Grandad had great empathy. Just as with her brilliant debut novel My Dog, Olivia Wakeford is superb at creating layers of emotion into stories of ordinary life. However, you never feel as a reader that you are being beaten round the head with ‘issues’ – the story and characters always take precedence. There is much to enjoy here: coping with change, family illness, mental health and feeling that you don’t belong. Alongside this runs the fascinating (and upsetting) story of the poor pit ponies, who had no choice about working deep underground and rarely saw daylight.
