I had a pony as a kid & lived on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, not too far from Chincoteague. We went there & I got to put a real place to the book. The 'Paul' in the book was in his early 30's then, as I recall & I supposedly got to meet him. I was pretty young, about 7 or 8 I guess. I was told he was Paul, anyway. I don't think we got to see Misty, but one of her foals - Stormy? Anyway, it was a memorable book, all my kids read them & my wife too. ( )

I think this book, along with My Friend Flicka, first ignited my love for horses and reading about them. This seems to be part of the fabric of my memory of early childhood. ( )

Chincoteague is a small island off the coast of Virginia. It is protected from the ocean by a larger island, Asateague, which is a wildlife refuge for wild fowl and wild ponies. Each year there is a round up of ponies from Asateague so that they don’t overrun the island and over populate. Boats line up from island coast to island coast, creating a lane for the horses to go from Asateague to Chincoteague. Misty of Chincoteague is the story of Paul and Maureen whose goal is to capture the elusive horse, Phantom, and claim her as their own.

Paul and Maureen dream of Phantom and begin saving money in order to buy him after the roundup. It is Paul’s first round up and, surprisingly, he sees Phantom and herds her into the watery lane leading to the Pony Pens on Chincoteague. The surprising thing is that Phantom had a colt since the prior year, which Paul immediately names Misty. Now brother and sister want to buy both horses.

Originally written in 1947, the dialogue in Misty of Chincoteague may be a little dated. But don’t let that deter you from a delightful story of a brother and sister who yearn for a horse of their own. They live with their grandparents who are horse trainers, so they see horses come and go. They need their own horse. Henry does an excellent job of situating the reader amidst the action. Readers feel like they are part of the island round up. They see the wild horses struggling against the tide to get from island to the next. They feel Maureen’s pain when she learns that someone had already purchased Misty.

Misty of Chincoteague is a great read-aloud book as well as a great story book. Animal lovers will not be able to put the book down. ( )

OK. ( )

I read this when I was a small child. All of the series of books by this author were beautiful. ( )