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A classic tale of love for a horse, and what it can push you to accomplish.

by Nancy Norton, Editor

Title: Misty of Chincoteague Author: Marguerite Henry

paperbook, 160 pages reading level: Third Grade – Seventh GradeR ”“ ecently I asked a young rider friend of mine for the titles of some of her favorite horse books, and Misty of Chincoteague was right at the top of her list. Misty is a story about a band of wild horses that live on an island and how a girl named Maureen and her brother Paul set about catching the wildest one for their own. The story starts hundreds of years ago, on a Spanish galleon with a cargo of valuable Moor horses that will be traded to the Viceroy of Peru for gold. It is near volves around Pony Penning Day, an actual annual event on the Island as early as the 1700s. “Penning” has been the traditional way livestock owners could claim the loose herds of ponies roaming the islands. Customs of penning evolved over the years, and by the 1920s, locals would round up the ponies on Assateague Island, swim them across the narrow channel to Chincoteague, then sell them to raise funds for the Volunteer Fire Company. Pony Penning Day is still held there every July. ponies. The kids love their grandfather, but they want a horse of their own, to keep and love. To make their dream come true, on the next Penning Day they plan to claim the Phantom, the most famous horse of them all. The day turns out to be full of surprises, and they find how many twists and turns a dream can take before it comes true. Misty of Chincoteague received the Newbery Honor soon after it was published in 1947. It has never been out of print in all the years Four miles off the eastern shore of Virginia lies the tiny, wind-rippled isle of Chincoteague. It is only seven miles long and averages but twenty-one inches above the sea. Assateague Island, however, is thirty-three miles long. Just as paul Beebe says, Assateague is an outrider, protecting little Chincoteague from the rough seas of the Atlantic. The outer island is a wildlife refuge for wild geese and ducks, and the wild ponies. the end of a difficult journey when The book’s central characters since, and has been published in a terrible storm wrecks the ship on are Maureen and Paul, who live several languages. It is beautifully the shoals off the coast of Virgin- with their grandparents. While illustrated, and led to several seia! The captain and all the crew it’s not clear, their parents might quels as well as a movie. If you drown, but the horses are able to be missionaries in China. Grand- are looking for a well-told story swim to safety. pa has a ranch on the island of about love for a horse, then you Fast forward to Chincoteague Chincoteague, where Maureen will enjoy the classic tale of Misty Island in the 1940s. The book re- and Jim help him break and sell of Chincoteague. n

— Excerpt of map from Misty of Chincoteague