Pony on the Twelfth Floor

by Polly Faber, Sarah Jennings (Illustrator)

Overview

Kizzy would give anything for a pony, but she never expected to find one at the supermarket! How do you keep a pony in your apartment without anyone finding out?

Kizzy has always wanted a pony of her own. So when she finds a pony snacking on donuts in the grocery store, she instantly knows that she must have him — and what to name him. But there’s just one small problem: it’s not easy to hide a pony in an apartment complex! Enlisting the help of her best friend, Pawel, Kizzy manages to keep Donut fed, ride him around the park, and even hide him in her school’s garden. But Kizzy is finding it harder and harder to keep Donut a secret. Will she be able to give him up if it means finding him a better home? A heartwarming story about following your dreams — no matter how far-fetched they seem.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781536209303
Publisher:	Candlewick Press
Publication date:	06/09/2020
Pages:	256
Sales rank:	1,248,063
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.06(h) x 0.85(d)
Age Range:	8 - 12 Years

About the Author

Polly Faber is the author of Mango & Bambang: The Not-a-Pig. She is also a children’s book blogger and volunteer reading helper. She looks after her very own tiny free library outside her house with the help of her husband and two children. She lives in London.

Sarah Jennings studied illustration at the University of Wolverhampton. Her style is loose, humorous, and textured, and she loves drawing, painting, and creating textures to use in her artwork. She lives and works in London.

Editorial Reviews

04/27/2020

Faber (the Mango & Bambang series) opens this caper on a droll note, explaining that though Kizzy had always dreamed of owning a pony, “she’d never expected to pick one up from the grocery store.” But after the 11-year-old and her friend Pawel spot an unattended pony gorging on doughnuts in a shop, Kizzy impulsively claims ownership. Her imagination instantly ignites as she decides that the pony, which she names Donut, “smelled of dreams come true,” and envisions riding him competitively and being tapped for the Olympics. But reality sets in—more or less—when the girl realizes the hurdles she must jump to conceal Donut, which involves hiding him in her bedroom, in Pawel’s backyard shed, in her school’s walled garden, and on a pony-loving neighbor’s apartment balcony, all comically portrayed in cartoon art by Jennings (On the First Day of First Grade). The animal’s insatiable appetite wreaks amusing havoc on multiple occasions while triggering a surfeit of scatological humor. Faber neatly weaves Kizzy’s sly resourcefulness, devotion to Donut, and rapports with friends and family into a sprightly, uplifting story. Ages 8–12. (June)

Publishers Weekly

Faber writes in a way that respects young readers’ intelligence, making this a chapter-book/middle-grade hybrid ideal for young, advanced readers. Full- and half-page black-and-white illustrations show that Kizzy and her family are black; her friend Pawel’s family is Polish. Featuring innocent content written with flair, this book fills a gap.
—Kirkus Reviews

The animal’s insatiable appetite wreaks amusing havoc on multiple occasions while triggering a surfeit of scatological humor. Faber neatly weaves Kizzy’s sly resourcefulness, devotion to Donut, and rapports with friends and family into a sprightly, uplifting story.
—Publishers Weekly

Faber’s determined protagonist, depicted in Jennings’s insouciant grayscale cartoons as a brown-skinned preteen with her hair in twists, is full of visions of her future equestrian successes with the rotund Donut—an endearing window into this age-level’s active fantasy life...That Faber manages to pull out a happy yet believable ending is testament to this chapter book’s abiding respect for its audience’s impossible dreams.
—The Horn Book

From the Publisher

2020-02-26
A horse-crazy city girl has her wish fulfilled when she finds a stray pony at the grocery store.

Kizzy has always wanted a pony, but living in an apartment building on a limited budget hasn’t allowed for so much as riding lessons. So when she and her best friend, Pawel, discover a pony munching on the pastries, Kizzy thinks quickly, claiming the pony and taking it home. She manages to get “Donut” up to her apartment and into her bedroom without anyone noticing—even overnight. But getting her new pony in and out of the building daily, finding the money to buy food for the constant eater, cleaning up his poop, and keeping him out of trouble all challenge her ambition to keep him. With a little help from some old and new friends, Kizzy keeps the pony longer than she logically should, but when she finally finds its rightful owner, it’s not the devastating farewell she had feared. The book’s premise is one many children will enjoy, and though the story feels overlong—rather like Donut’s sojourn with Kizzy—Faber writes in a way that respects young readers’ intelligence, making this a chapter-book/middle-grade hybrid ideal for young, advanced readers. Full- and half-page black-and-white illustrations show that Kizzy and her family are black; her friend Pawel’s family is Polish.

Featuring innocent content written with flair, this book fills a gap. (Fiction. 8-12)

Kirkus Reviews

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