A New Friend

Sue Bentley is best known as an author of books for the younger reader. Her Magic Ponies series is just one part of a whole menagerie of different magical animals: there are Magic Puppies, Magic Kittens, Magic Bunnies and even a Magic Reindeer.

Sue Bentley was born and brought up in Northamptonshire, where she still lives. She started writing relatively late: once her children started school she decided it was now or never, and on she went.

Her series are part of the fantasy movement that spread throughout children’s books post Harry Potter. Fantasy does not always sit easily with pony books, and such is the case with this series. Magical pony Comet is searching for his sister, Destiny, and materialises to little girls in different pony guises; sometimes as native ponies. Comet is terribly, terribly, good, which is does become rather unrelenting after a while.

Magic Ponies
A New Friend
A Special Wish
A Twinkle of Hooves
Show Jumping Dreams
Seaside Summer
Riding Rescue
Winter Wonderland
Pony Camp

Finding the books
All in print

Links and sources
An interview with Sue Bentley at Penguin Books (no longer available)