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An old favorite pony book of mine got a reprint!
Gail is a pony-loving girl in the 80s whose family moves to a new town. She misses her friends, but is somewhat consoled by their temporary residence, which they're living in for the summer while their new house is being built. It's outside of town in a forested area, perfect for adventurous rides on her pony Candlelight.
She finds a rusted-shut gate and, after getting it open, rides Candlelight through the woods and to a mansion she hadn't known was there, where she meets a strange girl named Hilary. Hilary is dressed strangely, is unfamiliar with Gail's clothes and slang, and only knows how to ride side-saddle. The girls bond over their mutual love of horses, while Gail slowly comes to realize/accept that the gate leads back in time to the 1880s.
Can I Get There By Candlelight? is a short, haunting, lovely book. The girls' friendship is beautifully evoked but not without edge. Hilary clearly needs Gail more than Gail needs her, because Gail has opportunities in life that Hilary doesn't, so what's a friendship for Gail is more than that for Hilary. (Re-reading it now, it also seems like Hilary might be in love with Gail, while Gail is at a pre-romance stage of life.)
The book has a shimmery, late-afternoon feeling; it's a bubble of time and space that's beautiful and real but inherently temporary. The ending is unexpectedly dark (but no animals die).
At the climax, despite some misgivings, Gail goes to Hilary's birthday party. (It's otherwise attended only by household adults, which gives you a real sense of Hilary's isolation.) At the party, Hilary gets a message that she's being sent away to boarding school in Switzerland. In a fury of rage and grief at being separated from Gail, she leaps into the carriage Candlelight is still harnessed to and drives wildly away. The carriage crashes, and Hilary is thrown. Gail can't tell if she's dead or alive, and flees on Candlelight in a panic.
When Gail later tries to get back to Babylon, she finds that the property in her time is being torn down, and the way into the past is closed.
It's a very sudden, dark ending, but the way it's written feels less awesomely depressing and more in keeping with the entire book's tone of "a brief and shining moment." There was a beautiful summer, and then it ended as summers do.
I'm very glad the book is back in print, but I am DYING at its new blurb. It's not only insanely spoilery, states an ambiguous incident as a certainty, and does not make the book sound appealing, but it fails to mention a rather crucial aspect of the premise. If you want to read the book unspoiled, order it without reading the blurb.
Lonely and unhappy after her family moves to the East and with only her pony, Candlelight, for company, Gail meets Hilary who is later killed in a pony-cart accident.
TIME TRAVEL ANYONE?
Gail is a pony-loving girl in the 80s whose family moves to a new town. She misses her friends, but is somewhat consoled by their temporary residence, which they're living in for the summer while their new house is being built. It's outside of town in a forested area, perfect for adventurous rides on her pony Candlelight.
She finds a rusted-shut gate and, after getting it open, rides Candlelight through the woods and to a mansion she hadn't known was there, where she meets a strange girl named Hilary. Hilary is dressed strangely, is unfamiliar with Gail's clothes and slang, and only knows how to ride side-saddle. The girls bond over their mutual love of horses, while Gail slowly comes to realize/accept that the gate leads back in time to the 1880s.
Can I Get There By Candlelight? is a short, haunting, lovely book. The girls' friendship is beautifully evoked but not without edge. Hilary clearly needs Gail more than Gail needs her, because Gail has opportunities in life that Hilary doesn't, so what's a friendship for Gail is more than that for Hilary. (Re-reading it now, it also seems like Hilary might be in love with Gail, while Gail is at a pre-romance stage of life.)
The book has a shimmery, late-afternoon feeling; it's a bubble of time and space that's beautiful and real but inherently temporary. The ending is unexpectedly dark (but no animals die).
At the climax, despite some misgivings, Gail goes to Hilary's birthday party. (It's otherwise attended only by household adults, which gives you a real sense of Hilary's isolation.) At the party, Hilary gets a message that she's being sent away to boarding school in Switzerland. In a fury of rage and grief at being separated from Gail, she leaps into the carriage Candlelight is still harnessed to and drives wildly away. The carriage crashes, and Hilary is thrown. Gail can't tell if she's dead or alive, and flees on Candlelight in a panic.
When Gail later tries to get back to Babylon, she finds that the property in her time is being torn down, and the way into the past is closed.
It's a very sudden, dark ending, but the way it's written feels less awesomely depressing and more in keeping with the entire book's tone of "a brief and shining moment." There was a beautiful summer, and then it ended as summers do.
I'm very glad the book is back in print, but I am DYING at its new blurb. It's not only insanely spoilery, states an ambiguous incident as a certainty, and does not make the book sound appealing, but it fails to mention a rather crucial aspect of the premise. If you want to read the book unspoiled, order it without reading the blurb.
Lonely and unhappy after her family moves to the East and with only her pony, Candlelight, for company, Gail meets Hilary who is later killed in a pony-cart accident.
TIME TRAVEL ANYONE?
