THE RED PONY (1937)

The Red Pony by John Steinbeck

Many young people were forced to read this book in school. This is one of those stories that you may not like much on first reading. But today our book group at John Ganton's Countryside had a lively discussion of  The Red Pony. The precise use of words describing people and places creates a world the reader can picture.
 
We also watched the 1949 technicolor film with Robert Mitchum and Myrna Loyd. Music was by Aaron Copland. It deviated from the book in ways that we found disturbing even though Steinbeck himself adapted the story for the screen. The book is actually four short stories about Jody, a young boy living with his parents on a hard-scrabble farm in California, coming of age.

I discovered there is also a 1973 remake with Henry Fonda and Maureen O'Sullivan. In this made for television movie, Clint Howard (Ron Howard's brother) played the part of Jody.

Next month the tentative plan is to read The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. The Jackson District Library has a wide selection of book kits that can be checked out for book groups.