IN BRIEF


R J Palacio Author


The author of breakout bestseller Wonder returns this autumn with a new book, Pony, chronicling a boy’s search for his father across the plains of mid-19th century America


Questions Charlotte Eyre P


Q&A R J Palacio


ony, the new novel from American bestselling author R J Palacio, is about Silas, a boy who sets off in search of his father with a ghost called Mitenwool and a mysterious pony. Set in the mid-1800s, the novel takes place across the vast American landscape. It will be published by Puffin in a global publication with Alfred A Knopf Books for Young Readers, an imprint of Random House Children’s Books in the US, on 28th September.


01 What inspired Pony? The initial spark came from


a scary dream my older son had, the details of which are completely forgotten. But what stayed with me was the image of a boy with a half-red face. That image, for whatever reason, stayed with me, and I found myself starting a story about that boy. It was around this time that my


father passed away, and although his death was not a surprise, his passing greatly shook me—not only for obvious reasons, but because my mother was also gone, and I realised that the thing I had always been so afraid of when I was little—being left alone—had finally come to pass. And


16 15th June 2021


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24