Ponder: City of Ghosts Series

 I have read several books by V.E.Schwab and enjoyed all of  them, rating each 4 or 5 stars: 

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue (★★★★★) 11/14/21
The Darker Shade of Magic (★★★★★) 4/28/22
A Gathering of Shadows (★★★★☆) 5/21/22
A Conjuring of Light (★★★★☆) 5/23/22
The Fragile Threads of Power (★★★★★) 2/25/24

Then I learned that Schwab has written a series of Young Adult  books dealing with ghosts and the paranormal, published in 2019, 2020, 2022. I have two granddaughters, cousins, who are very much into Harry Potter and Percy Jackson so I decided to check out the City of Ghosts series to see if these books would appeal. I think they very much will. On Amazon they are rated 4.6 out of 5 stars.

The main character Cassidy Blake has a best friend in a ghost Jacob. Cassidy's parents' occupation is writing books on the paranormal. Over a summer Cassidy's parents decide to take a tour with Cassidy and visit the most ghost inhabited cities of the world to film and develop a TV series that parallels and complements their books. Cassidy's dad is an historian and her mom complements him with the anecdotal ghost story side of the topics.  They work together as a team.

The places on the tour are Edinburgh, Scotland for City of Ghosts, Paris for Tunnel of Bones, and New Orleans for Bridge of Souls. In Scotland I learned directly from the City of Ghosts text what I have had  to glean from other books I have read by British authors: jumper = sweater, chips = fries, chips = crisps. Each book is a travel guide for its respective city even with a map in the front pages. In Paris I learned more about the catacombs than I ever knew. I saw the record holding causeway over Lake Pontchartrain in New Orleans in a whole new light discovering that it holds the world record for the longest continuous span over water, so much so that you cannot see one end from the other. I also learned a whole set of rules about the spirit world and ghostly constraints, although these paranormal rules may not be as factual as the other geographic knowledge I gained.

The characters are delightful. Jacob prefers to be called corporeally challenged rather than a ghost. He is wont to shoot devilish grins to punctuate his snarky remarks. Cassidy clings to a vintage camera and it is a vehicle for her to see different perspective into the world beyond the "Veil", the in-between land of spirits.

The action is good, and the is plot fun, as well as scary at times. There are also many Harry Potter references throughout that I think readers will find enjoyable and descriptive in way of explanations and elaborations. I am definitely going to see that this trilogy makes its way into the hands of each of my granddaughters. I would also venture that their younger siblings would like them also. Here are some teacher and reader evaluations for Books 1, 2 and 3:

Even though as young adult books they lack the sophistication of adult reading matter, I think they are great for their designated audience. I rate them 5 stars. They were a pager turner for me and I had a hard time setting them down.

★★★★★ Great! Read them!

Ponder: Pony

Pony, by R.J.Palacio ©2021 had been resting inconspicuously on a shelf in my family room for about the past two years, having been bought on an impulse at Costco. I have a nearly eight-year old granddaughter who is quite horse crazy and decided to pre-read the novel before giving it to her. I came across this interesting dream-horse blog post about why many girls are indeed horse-crazy. The phenomenon is quite common. I had to chuckle when one Psychology Today reference stated:

 With horses, women are practicing the same skills they use to train their boyfriends and children.

Pony is intended for a young adult audience, and the author is well praised for her book Wonder, which I thought was awesome enough that I rated it five stars. Disappointedly, even when I shifted my mindset to reflect that of a young adult book, I thought Pony was mediocre at best. Although the premise was intriguing in Amazon's description...

The bestselling author of Wonder returns with an enthralling adventure about a boy on a quest to rescue his father, with only a ghost as his companion and a mysterious pony as his guide.

... the role of the pony in the book was not nearly as major as the title might lead the reader (or the purchaser) to believe. In an Amazon review, even a 10 year old reader suggested the book be renamed, "Ghosts" or "Mittenwool".  Pony read more like a western adventure to me than an equine story at all. I had higher expectations from the author and the title.  At the risk of appearing sexist or stereotypical, I thought this book would appeal more to a shoot-'em-up, cowboy-enthralled boy than a horse-enamored girl. I will admit though, that 12 year old Silas, is quite an endearing main character, even if he isn't a horse.

I still can learn something from a book even if it does not meet my expectations. Amazon's website advertised the book as Pony Hardcover – Deckle Edge, September 28, 2021 which made me wonder, "What is a Deckle Edge?". I looked it up in Wikipedia and learned:

Paper with a feathered edge is described as having a deckle edge, in contrast to a cut edge. Before the 19th century, the deckle edge was unavoidable, a natural artifact of the papermaking process in which sheets of paper were made individually on a deckle, a wooden frame. Today, machine-made paper may artificially have its edges produced with deckle edges.

This edging seemed very appropriate since Pony was staged in the mid-1850's. This mid-19th century typical book edging contributed to the feel of western genre.

There were a fair number of coincidences in the book, particularly in the denouement, that might lend themselves to childlike amazement; but to the adult in me, those happenstances seemed contrived and lame. In re-reading this post I find it to be harsh, more so than I intended. In contrast to my point of view, Amazon reader reviews rated Pony 4.6 out of 5 stars. I, however, can not seem to get over my disappointment at expecting a pony and getting a smear of manure. I shall retreat and try to recover some of my young-at-heart spirit that I appear to have lost.

★★☆☆☆ Ok, not great; some redeeming features; I finished it