The Shadow Pony
🐴🏭💚🌑
by Olivia Wakeford
★★★★
At a glance
Things I loved:
✍🏼 Author: Olivia Wakeford
🎨 Illustrator: David Litchfield
📅 Release Date: 26th February 2026
📚 Book type: Chapter, 256 pages
🌟 Reader level: Confident
🐴 A gorgeous animal story
💚 Blended families & belonging
🏭 Fascinating Welsh mining history
🌑 Facing fears & finding courage
💭 Honest emotional exploration
📚 Perfect for LKS2 readers+
Dive Deeper
My Thoughts...
I loved Olivia Wakeford’s My Dog (if you haven’t read it, you absolutely should!), so I knew Shadow Pony was a must-read. The cover artwork is also just gorgeous, so it was a complete no-brainer!
Shadow Pony is a lovely story, packed with fascinating information about the history of Welsh mining. It would make a great class read with links to history, but is also a wonderful story for any reader to enjoy.
Although the Shadow Pony is a key part of the storyline, it takes more of a backseat for much of the book. Instead, the main story focuses on a rich exploration of blended families, absent parents, fears, bullying and dementia. Each of these subjects is approached in Olivia Wakeford’s gentle and honest style, making this a thoughtful and accessible read for LKS2 readers too.
🌟I’d recommend this to lovers of animal stories and realistic fiction, particularly fans of Adam Baron.🌟
Blurb
Evan hates change, which is a big problem because the last few years have brought a lot of it. His family is split down the middle, and lately Grandad hasn’t been himself. But Evan can always depend on best friend Okie Dokie, his lovable dog.
When a school trip takes Evan to an old mine where Grandad used to work, things go disastrously wrong. Grandad refuses to talk to Evan about the mine, and especially about the poor pit ponies that worked down there in the dark.
But Evan is desperate to know more about Grandad’s past and if he can only find out what Grandad’s hiding, the weird gulf between them will surely disappear. Can Evan uncover Grandad’s secrets before they are lost forever?
Should I read this book?
You should read this book if you...
🐴enjoy realistic fiction🐴
🐴love animals🐴
🐴like stories that show the struggle of others 🐴
Reader level: Confident
Content: 7+
Help me to read
- Pit Pony: A pony used to pull carts of coal underground in a mine.
- Mine shaft: A deep vertical tunnel that leads down into a mine.
- Wales: A country that is part of the United Kingdom, famous for its mountains, valleys and history of coal mining.
- Coal mine: A place where coal is dug out of the ground.
- Colliery: Another word for a coal mine, including the buildings and equipment above and below ground.
- Pithead: The area at the top of a mine shaft, where people and coal enter and leave the min
Add comment
Comments