Beatrice Ebert

Ray and Paddy Beatrice Ebert

¿¿¿¿ Technology of today has made living easy for us.¿Our modern-day children have and can enjoy almost anything they desire. One wonders if they have any concept of what it was¿like to live 70 years ago, during the Great Depression. A few books and movies have revealed some of the children's challenges of that era; now fantasy and crime stories have taken up a good portion of children's liiterature and TV. The South Florida Sun Sentinel wrote in part recently: "As they experienced parenthood, filmmakers find a new interest in movies about family life." This book fits right into that revival category, and specifically young riding ponies. ¿¿¿ Stories about young animals, along with grown horses are plentiful. However, only a limited number have touched on ponies... the chief interest of most children 7 through 12 years. ¿¿¿¿ Ray and Paddy tells the story of a 10 year-old farm boy, wanting a pony so bad that he could hardly think of anything else. This boy, Ray, was my brother. We lived on a farm with our parents and older brother, Billy. ¿¿¿¿ It got pretty exciting the first year, when an untrained Shetland pony arrived on our farm. The story reveals Ray's dedication for caring and training this pony. He named him Paddy. He was a true Shetland, being stubborn and strong willed. That complicated things and shifted Paddy's value from carnival training to something quite different and his value lessened. Would Paddy be able to stay on the farm? ¿¿¿¿ How Ray and the family dealt with the funny positives and serious negatives relating to Paddy staying, is a remarkable story. The family's resourcefulness in dealing with the Great Depression along wiith keeping Paddy, holds the reader's attention from beginning to end.