The Discontented Pony, 1951 (DJ)

The Discontented Pony is the 4th in the ‘Animal Stories’ series, 497.   As with the other books in this series, it was written by Noel Barr and illustrated by Percy Hickling.

This is a storybook intended to be read to young children.  Most of the stories deal with ‘naughty’ animals and the lessons they learn by the end of the book.  The Discontented Pony is no exception; it features Merrylegs, the pony who envied the carousel horses, but  the ending – as ever – is happy.  The earliest copies of this book were originally published with a dustwrapper.

This  copy still has its original dustwrapper which has been price-clipped but is generally in condition.  The spine panel is well worn and there are nicks and small closed tears to DJ edges. There is an erased inscription on the front endpapers and a hit of pencil-crayon shading to the preliminaries – but not to the reading pages which are clean and in good shape.