Book Review: The Sand Ponies by Shirley Rousseau Murphy

The Sand Ponies by Shirley Rousseau Murphy, illustrated by Erika Weihs. Published by Viking Press in 1967. 173 pages.

Karen and Tom were orphans caught in a terrible situation. Their parents had been killed in an accident and they'd been forced to go live with an aunt and uncle who drank and fought constantly. Karen and Tom's entire life, the farm they'd lived on with their parents and all their horses had been sold without their knowledge and no one would tell them anything. Each day trapped in the two bedroom apartment became more and more unendurable. Both Karen and Tom knew that since school was out for the summer, the situation would become even worse. So the two made the only decision that they could, they decided to run away. Karen was thirteen and Tom was twelve.

Both Karen and Tom knew that they could not go back to their old home since it would be the first place anyone would look for them. They traveled in that general direction though, heading north to the ocean. Having grown up on a farm, the two were able to eat foods they found growing in the wild to help supplement their diet. At the same time that Karen and Tom were running away, the four horses that had belonged to them and their parents were also running away from their new home to the ocean.

As Karen and Tom neared the ocean, they came to a place where Sand Ponies ran free and Karen felt sure that something special was waiting for them. That's when they first met little twin girls who invited them home with them to live. They met Sarah Paddyfoot and John and Mr. Tillman, the twins' father. They also met Roland the tramp and the new teacher, Mary McCamley. Karen and Tom also found out about the Sand Ponies who were believed to be magic. Some people would make a wish on them. Others believed that if you fed the Sand Ponies and treated them well, you would have good luck while if you mistreated the ponies, you would have bad luck.

Karen and Tom told their entire story to Mr. Tillman and he invited them to live with them too and the two settled into the barn turned household. But things were happening in the outside world around them. The ring of criminals that they'd stumbled across in their travels were still out there capturing Sand Ponies and mistreating them as well as other criminal acts. Their former horses were still out there traveling closer and closer to them. And the new school year was rapidly approaching and Karen and Tom were not sure how they were going to continue to live with the Tillman's without their uncle trying to force them to return.

But things have a way of working out when a decent adult is on your side. Mr. Tillman had gone to the sheriff to report the criminals and he had also made arrangement to have Karen and Tom live with him permanently, if that was what they wanted. Then everything came together one night. The criminals were arrested and their former horses appeared in the neighborhood and Karen was united with her horse Kippy and Tom with his Tolly.

This is another one of those "feel-good" books. All situations came together in a happy manner with everything working out just right. I really love a happy ending! The horses don't play quite as large a part in this story as they do in this authors' other book WHITE GHOST SUMMER but horses and ponies are woven throughout the entire story for a very enjoyable read. This book is out-of-print but you can pick up a copy very reasonably priced on the internet from either ebay or one of the book search services like bookfinder.com.