The Stone Pony

by Patricia Calvert

JoBeth spends time with her late sister’s horse, Riono, and learns she and her sister weren’t as different as she thought.

Genres: Young Adult, Fiction

Mass Market Paperback

Published December 6, 1983

About the author

"We are all emigrants from the same country — the land of childhood. What I want to do is write about the journey all of us have taken — or are in the process of taking — from that special place."

Patricia Calvert celebrates her birthday on July 22nd. She grew up in the mountains of Montana, in what was "a magic world for any child, one in which lodgepole pines grew like arrows toward a sky that seemed always blue." Even though Ms. Calvert knew she wanted to be a writer when she was ten, it wasn't until her daughters were grown and had moved away from home and she and her husband moved to Minnesota that she concentrated on her writing.

Among her books, The Snowbird and Yesterday's Daughter have both been named to ALA's Best Books for Young Adults list. Glennis, Before and After received a Christopher Award. Betrayed! (Atheneum) appeared in 2002 and Robert E. Peary: To the Top of the World (Benchmark) in 2001. Most recently, Ms. Calvert has been focusing on nonfiction writing, bringing us biographies of Zebulon Pike and Kit Carson, as well as The Ancient Celts.

Reviews

[Cindy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't remember too many books I read in Junior High, but I will never forget this one, not really sure why, but I loved it.

[Theresa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another book with a cover that isnt much about the book, but I'll let this one go.

So this book is a bit odd. Its about a girl named Jobeth whose sister died of cancer. Jobeth is kinda losing her damn mind. She doesn't cry when her sister died, and she's not sure she loved her. Jobeth has everything in her mind all tangled up. In her mind it was her mother and Ashleigh ( her sister) and then herself and her dad. Two separate teams that had nothing in common.

When her sister dies her world tilts on its axis. She stops talking to her friends, she tries to live in her father's museum, she teaches herself to write exactly like her father writes. Her parents are too broke up to really see how she has become till she sleeps in Ashleigh's bed.

Then she gets sent to therapy which went over as well as you'd think.

Then Jobeth goes to Ashleigh 's horse Riono. She is terrified of horses and knows next to nothing about them, but in a snit she gets him all ready to ride. Thankfully a boy that worked there befriends her and teaches her to ride. They decide to try to get her into a show that was to take place in 6 weeks. All that work and her growing relationship with Luke really helps her start to become herself and let go.

Jobeth is a weird girl who probably needed therapy before cancer took her sister, but this kind of coming of age story helps her stat to find her way. Her eyes are opened to a lot of things she never saw, and she's willing to take it one step at a time and talk it out.

[Catherine Hawthorn · Rating 3 out of 5]

This definitely wasn't my favorite book, but it was well-written. The character arcs were pretty well done. The only things that I didn't really like about it were the romance and the counseling bits (I really think she should have gone to the minister first).

RW Ratings:

Language: 5 stars.
Abuse: 5 stars. There is no abuse, but there is some trauma and some unresolved family/personal issues.
Lust: 4 stars. There is a teenage romance, and some desires for kisses. There are also sometimes when they meet alone.

[Kyle Daoust]

The Stone Pony written by Patricia Calvert is a very interesting book. The main character in the book JoBeth. JoBeth had a very multi-talented sister who died. The only way that JoBeth could forget about her sister is when she goes to the local museum and study the ancient creature, the stone pony. I did not like the details in the book. I could not make a mental picture in my head. I liked the idea of the book. I would recommenced this book to someone who likes to read about mystery.

[Jessica Weinberger · Rating 3 out of 5]

Enjoyed reading a character that actually felt real, like her thoughts and emotions.

[Mel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved this when I was a teen. Just right, with a balance of sadness and light.