About the author
Natale Ghent (b.1962) was born in Brookfield, Illinois. Her aunt encouraged her to write her stories down by buying her spiral-bound notebooks and telling her to fill them. When Natale was seven, the family moved to Ontario; away from her close family, but to a rural environment where they had animals, and most importantly, horses. Natale studied at the Universities of Guelph and California, and studied landscape architecture before realising her first love was writing. Since then she has written several well-received YA novels, amongst which are two horse stories: No Small Thing and All the Way Home.
Finding the books
Easy to find.
Links and sources
Natale Ghent at Penguin Random House
Bibliography (horse books only)
No Small Thing
HarperCollins Ltd, Canada, 2003
Candlewick Press, Massachusetts, 2005, 245 pp.
Walker Books, London, 2005, 250 pp.
Nat and his sisters Cid and Queenie have been abandoned by their father, and life is a struggle, but owning, training, and caring for a pony they acquired for free makes it easier to cope. It’s hard to convince Mum to let them take the pony on, and it’s still hard for them all to cope. Nat struggles to deal with his father’s absence; help his “different” younger sister, and recover from having
his heart broken by a rich, pretty girl from school. But Nat knows that Smokey, the pony will always be waiting. Or will he?
All the Way Home
HarperTrophy, 2006
HarperTrophy, Canada, 2009
Sequel to No Small Thing. The family have moved, and Smokey is being boarded. Other things have changed: Cid’s taken up smoking and hanging out with the rough kids. Nat still misses his father, and then their mother becomes ill, and the family may be taken in by Social Services. With Smokey’s help, Nat sets off to find their father.
