Book Giveaway – Pony in the City

Congratulations to Wendy Wahman on her new book PONY IN THE CITY. She has agreed to participate in our book giveaways. All you have to do to get in the running is to leave a comment. Reblog, tweet, or talk about it on Facebook with a link and you will get additional chances to win. Just let me know the other things you did to share the good news, so I can put in the right amount of tickets in my basket for you. Check back to discover the winner.

BOOK DESCRIPTION:

Otis loves the children who visit him in his paddock. But what are THEIR lives like?
Come visit the city with this curious pony as he tries to find out!

Otis wants to know all about the kids who ride at his stables. Do they sleep in stalls, too? Do they also get brushed and braided? The older ponies just flick their tails, snort, and ignore his questions. So, Otis heads to the city to see for himself. And as he looks at the happy, playful children all around town, he finds his answers. But then Otis realizes he’s sleepy, hungry, and very lost. Fortunately, some of his favorite friends come to the rescue and lead him back home . . . where the tables turn and the OTHER ponies have questions for Otis!
Kids who love to ask “why” will relate to this sweet story about an adorable, inquisitive little pony.

BOOK JOURNEY:

When we were kids, my sister Sharon and I pretended to be horses. A lot. We’d canter around the park and jump over anything jumpable. We’d shy away from shadows. We’d shake our manes and paw the ground. We also ‘ate apples.’ The ‘apples’ were actually mushy little red pyracantha berries. We pretended (we, as in the horses we were) to eat them by digging small bites off with a fingernail. I haven’t pretended to eat a berry/apple lately, but I do still switch into horse mode. Like, walking down a steep trail, I’ll take small flat-footed steps, and do that side-to-side hip swing horses do. Near the bottom of the hill I’ll break into a trot. I might do a flying change or two on switchbacks now and then. Sharon and I also played plastic horses. Each horse had a complex personality, and we stuck to character. Our made up horse owners were just as real. They rode their horses with our hands, our thumb and index fingers were the person’s legs. Some rode better than others. We took our horse play seriously.

Otis, the main character in “Pony in the City,” first trotted out of the barn of my brain during a 2011 SCBWI writing workshop with Noa Wheeler. Noa was my wonderful editor for “A Cat Like That,” so I was really looking forward to her session, and I’m so glad I went.

Otis wasn’t always Otis. He used to be named, Nickers. A nicker is the soft, throaty sound horses make when they’re happy, content, or greeting someone they like. It sounds like, her-her-her. Like a horse’s way of purring. Sterling editor, Christina Pulles loved the story — but not the name. So in 2016, Nickers became Otis (like, oats, his second favorite food*) and Christina and I got to work making a book. The other ponies in the story are Whinny, a former parade pony, Mosey, a chicken-herding cow pony, and Derby, a race pony who keeps his mane and tail braided to cut down on wind resistance.

 

Summary: Otis loves the children who visit the Pony Paddock and wants to learn all about them. But he asks so many questions, the older ponies try to ignore him. Frustrated, Otis slips through the corral rails one night, and sets off to find answers to his questions. He does finds answers — but he also gets lost. Clippity, clippity, cloppity, cloppity, which way is home? He spends the night running scared through the big city. Poor Otis! Finally, he tucks himself under some newspapers by a dumpster in an alley. The next morning, with the help of his favorite children, he finds his way home. But once back in his stall, there’s no rest for Otis. The tables are turned, and now it’s the older ponies asking all the questions.

*You’ll have to wait for the sequel to find out what food Otis cannot resist.

WENDY’S BIO:

I worked at the Seattle Post-Intelligencer newspaper until it’s closure in 2009. Now I mostly do children’s books and illustration. My first book, “Don’t Lick the Dog” was selected as a 2010 Bank Street Best Children’s Book of the Year, starred for Outstanding Merit and accepted to the Society of Illustrators Original Art show. Other books include “A Cat Like That,” “Snowboy 1,2,3,” “Rabbit Stew,” “Pony in the City,” and illustrations for middle grade non-fiction, “Your Body, Yourself: Q&A,” and “The Teen Body Book, a Guide to your Changing Body.”​

Some awards: American Illustration Annual, Best of the West, Society of News Design International, Bank Street Books, Society of Publication Designers, Society of Professional Journalists, Society of Illustrators.

I hang out with my husband Joe Wahman, (he’s a writer) and our kids (who look and act like Standard Poodles). We live in a house in Tacoma with a magnificent Monkey Puzzle Tree.​

I love yoga, and getting plenty of ‘rigorous exercise’ (as my Dad used to say). I occasionally meditate, I always draw and I always read. I love being with my friends and family, but I also like just thinking about them (I need a lot of alone time). But you can pry me out of the house for plays and museums. My favorite places in my old home town are the La Brea Tar Pits, the Temporary Contemporary and the Watts Towers. I prefer my coffee with chocolate almond milk and my favorite food is popcorn.

Thank you Wendy for sharing your journey with us and offering one lucky winner a copy of your new book, PONY IN THE CITY.

Talk tomorrow,

Kathy