Misty
Categories: Award Winners , Rediscoveries , Outdoors & Nature , Children's Books
As little girls, I think every woman of my generation fell in love with Atlantic coastal island life when we read Misty of Chincoteague (1947) by Marguerite Henry. The adventures of Paul and Maureen Beebe and their family seemed so exciting and wonderful! I was fascinated by the ponies, the ocean, the islands, and daily island life.
The book opens with the escape of terrified ponies on board a Spanish galleon that runs aground in a storm in the early years of Spanish exploration. These ponies were the ancestors of the present day island ponies that live all along the barrier islands of the east coast.
Henry was awarded a Newbery Honor for Misty of Chincoteauge. She followed it up in 1949 with Sea Star, Orphan of Chincoteague that she was inspired to write on a visit back to Assategue Island, the home of the ponies. Later, she wrote Stormy, Misty's Foal (1963) after the devastating 1962 "Ash Wednesday Storm" ripped into the islands.
I have had the extreme privilege of seeing the wild island ponies on North Carolina's Outer Banks islands. They weren't afraid of us humans, but they really didn't have much time for us, turning their backs pointedly as we tried to photograph them.
Wesley Dennis was a frequent illustrator of Henry's books. He captured the stories perfectly in beautiful pictures, providing a look into the Sultan's stables or a sulky race or a windswept beach filled with wild ponies. They worked on 15 books together. A fascinating book that discusses their collaboration and the birth of many of the books is The Illustrated Marguerite Henry (1980).
Marguerite Henry won the 1949 Newbery Medal for King of the Wind, the Story of the Godolphin Arabian, a fabulous, exotic tale set in Saudi Arabia and the racing world of England. She had a lifelong fascination with horses, but also wrote about dogs and other animals. Just reading the list of her books brings back memories of being a little girl, and settling in with great anticipation to read a new Marguerite Henry book.
Some of my favorites:
- King of the Wind Story of the Godolphin Arabian and the boy who cares for him
- Jusin Morgan Had A Horse Beginnings of the Morgan Horse breed
- Black Gold Thoroughbred racing horse
- Man O'War Great Race Horse
- Brighty of the Grand Canyon Little donkey
- Album of Horses
- Born to Trot The Hambletonian and the world of sulky racing
- White Stallion of Lipizza Fascinating story of the Royal Lipizzan Stallions at the Spanish Riding School in Vienna
