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Author Jane Smiley draws on lifelong love of horses for new book aimed at young readers

October 24, 2009


Jane Smiley , best-selling author and Pulitzer Prize recipient, came up with what she thought was a winning idea for a children's picture book. She wanted to call it "Twenty Yawns."

"There would be so many pictures of yawning, the child would absolutely go to sleep," Smiley said.

She pitched the proposal to an editor, whose reaction was somewhere between unimpressed and bored. The editor happened to lament to Smiley, however, that there were very few "horse books" for pre-teens and teens, the kinds of stories many young girls enjoyed growing up.

"I can do that," Smiley told her. "I'd love to do that. It's like returning to my roots."

Smiley created 12-year-old Abby Lovitt and tells Abby's horse story in "The Georges and the Jewels" (240 pages; Knopf). It's the first book for younger readers by the much-revered author.

Horses are a favorite topic and lifelong love for Smiley, who became enthralled at about age 5 with her first pony ride.

"The pony ride was through a maze," said Smiley, who grew up in St. Louis . "They strapped you in. I think you went around twice. I just adored it."

Smiley rode horses from about age 11 until she went to college. Later she picked up the avocation again, becoming a "horse person," owning and breeding horses. When she settled in northern California , she was introduced to the "horse whispering" style of horse training. She decided her book would explore the topic.

"The method enlists the horse's cooperation," she said, "and the horse's sense of play and the desire to do something."

In the book, Abby's father buys and sells horses, and Abby is his helper, riding and caring for the "Georges" and the "Jewels" — what he insists she calls the geldings and mares so she won't get too attached to them.

Writing for younger readers, Smiley was especially mindful she needed to keep the story moving. But, she said, writing in the voice of a 12-year-old wasn't a problem for her.

"It's like a costume you put on," Smiley said. "Pretty soon, the voice comes out. It's akin to acting a little bit. You're in her point of view, so something that might occur to (grown-up) Jane Smiley doesn't occur to Abby."

Besides Abby's interactions with the horses, she deals with discord at home and with school life, where subsets of seventh-grade girls are battling things out. The story is set in the 1960s.

Abby evolved into a problem-solver, Smiley said, and that makes her a good protagonist for young readers.

"I think that what junior high kids look for the most is a method for solving what can seem to them to be overwhelming difficulties," she said.

Smiley has her own memories of middle-school years, of course, but she said she also learned from the experiences of her children.

"My solution was mostly to stay out of the way and hope for the best. My kids were a little more proactive," she said. "Abby is the kind of person who doesn't offer opinion, but if you ask her she tells the truth. I love those kind of people."

Smiley will write three Abby books in all. "A Good Horse" is due out in September and the third, as yet untitled, in 2011.

Her other books include "Horse Heaven," about horse breeding and horse racing, and "A Thousand Acres," which won the 1992 Pulitzer Prize for fiction.

 


McClatchy-Tribune Information Services