The Sleep Ponies
- Book Review,
by Gudrun Ongman
From Booklist
Ages 4-6. Accessed only through dreams, sleep ponies transport the young narrator to flower-filled meadows, fast-running streams, and shady ponds. Through Ongman's lyrical prose, rich with nature imagery, little listeners are carried along for the ride on the back of an imaginary pony. The gauzy paintings in watercolors and pastels evoke dreaminess as they picture the wildlife populating the bucolic scenes. This soothing read will please young horse lovers at bedtime or any time of the day. Ellen Mandel
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Western Horseman, December 2000
A lovely picture book...wonderful adventures...a delightful book for young horse lovers everywhere.
Woodinville Weekly, September 2000
The prose is whimsical and poetic accompanied by lush dreamy illustrations...a feast for the senses, imagination.
The Seattle Times, December 2000
Luminous illustrations.
Oergon State University Bookstore
The beautiful watercolor illustrations in this picture book are sure to capture the heart of any child who loves horses.
Book Description
A fanciful foray into the imagination of a child can be found in the delightfully written and dazzlingly illustrated new children's book, The Sleep Ponies. Author/illustrator Gudrun Ongman, a professional sculptor and painter, has transformed her mother's bedtime tale into a lyrical myth about magic ponies that carry children away to golden fields of dreams. The sweet story, the evocative, description prose, and the warm, soft watercolors all combine to captivate both parent and child as they journey together to the land of The Sleep Ponies.
From the Publisher
The Sleep Ponies is written in many layers and is designed to be enjoyed by a wide age range. For the very young it is a comforting bedtime story often used as a picture only book. For the school aged child, as the words become more important, it becomes an empowering “how to travel book for the imagination” and a journey in poetry. In our high paced, stress filled world, it provides children a safe and beautiful place for the heart to go to relax and be refilled. For the art lover, the watercolors overlaid with pastels are a collection of quietly breathtaking impressionistic art. For the horse lover, The Sleep Ponies delivers a whole herd of loving ponies, little friends who come when and go where the imagination calls. For the adult it is a journey back in time. A gift from the heart to pass through the generations, The Sleep Ponies is a classic in the making.
From the Inside Flap
Imagine being transported to dreamland by a herd of wild ponies. A little girl learns from her grandmother how to call her own sleep ponies. Then she tells of her experiences and small adventures with her fuzzy new pals on her way to the coziest nap imaginable. Nature comes alive through word and watercolor in an array of senses and images in the quiet, prose lullaby about the magical love between horse and child and the world between dream and reality they inhabit.
About the Author
In her first book, The Sleep Ponies, author/illustrator Gudrun Ongman uses her skill as an award-winning artist to create the complex and emotional artwork. She uses her experience as a children’s art instructor to gage content to her audience. She uses her knowledge as a former nurse and nurse practitioner to understand a child’s need for relaxation and contemplation. She uses a life long love of horses and her three daughters’ experiences with their own pony to accurately portray the interactions between horse and child. And most of all she uses her treasured memories of long ago rides and small adventures with her own sleep ponies, adventures that began when her mother first told her the legend of The Sleep Ponies.
Excerpted from The Sleep Ponies by Gudrun Ongman. Copyright © 2000. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved
I lay still and silent, my eyes closed. Just as Grandma promised, my pony Whinny appeared. And just as Grandma warned, when I reached out or opened my eyes, she vanished. So I remembered to hold ever so still, and open my heart instead of my eyes and reach out with love instead of hands. Fuzzy, round little Whinny returned to step closer.
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