Happy Go Lucky

My 2nd grader loves horses and this book was a great way to get her into chapter book. Stories are simple and she loves the entire series.

"Happy Go Lucky" is a great chapter book for young readers. It is written from the main character Happy's point of view, which is a pony. Happy is faced with many of the same challenges young children face when growing up including shyness and anxiety. Due to this fact, young children can easily relate to what Happy goes through during the story and use Happy's experiences to help ease their fears of the changes/challenges that they will go through as they grow and progress through school. At the end of the book you will find some information written in child friendly language that explains what makes a pony a pony along with a mini glossary containing descriptions of some of the words used in the story that are related to horses including words like bridle, bit, and reins. These tools provide factual information for children and help to clear up some of the unfamiliar terms they will come across during the story. This book would be excellent for young children who are reading on a higher grade level because the topic of the story would be interesting to them. Even though it is a chapter book the chapters are really short and include several illustrations to go along with the story, which children really enjoy. In my opinion this book would be an excellent choice for students who are in the first or second grade and are reading on a high level.

My daughter is in 1st grade but is reading at a 3-4th grade level. It is very hard to pick out chapter books that would hold her interest but are not about 3-5th graders kids who act and say things too old for my daughter to really "get it." She picked this book up at her school's book fair because she loves horses. We read this book together taking turns reading chapters and I was very happy with this book. My daughter could not put it down. I am glad to see this is the first book in a series as we will now be picking out the others. The book is written in the pony's point of view and he talks to his other pony/horse friends when the humans are not around - when the humans are around the narrative is his thinking. You get to understand how a horse may feel towards the humans they react towards but mainly Happy is having the same type of problems kids can have with other horses and situations. Separation anxiety, shyness, afraid to adjust to a new situation, try new things etc.... It was more interesting for my daughter because it was a pony going thru all these things as opposed of another girl similar to her but the author makes it obvious enough to get the point across that feelings such as these are common and how to try to make the best of whatever situation you are in. It is delighful, warming and can make you a little sad at times while putting a big smile on your face at other times. It uses none of the bratty words or context that can be found in many books of similar reading levels (stupid, dumb, idiot, I don't care etc...) It is a book a parent could read to even the 4-6yr old group before they learn to read themselves and overall I think boys or girls up to the age of 10yrs old would enjoy this book.