As a reader, especially one that specializes in children’s and young adult reads, I like to think I mix my genres up, or at least my subjects. I know I have been on a graphic novel kick for several years now, but they come in all shapes and sizes and subjects so I can find almost anything I am in the mood for. And ages ago I found a My Little Pony (contemporary) collection of several stories. It was My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Season 10, Vol. 2 Why did I pick up volume 2? Well that comes into play soon.
But first a bit of background to how I finally came to read it: I was going to read and give it as a gift to a nephew who is special needs and loved the MLPs. He loved the colors and the silliness of their videos, movies and songs. But he is starting to outgrow his MLP days, but I still had a book that had found a really nice hiding spot after it was purchased, and only emerged oddly enough one day when I was looking for other things. I figured I would read it, see if he still wanted to read it himself (even though it didn’t have most of the ponies he liked) and then I would donate it to a library or thrift shop if he didn’t. I got through several of the stories (no surprises in them: good ponies, bad situations, lots of humor, love and friendship) and said, “Why did you pick up volume two? I mean it’s not like Nephew’s ponies are here?
I looked and looked. Oh! One of the authors was Jeremy Whitley. The author of Navigating with You (on my TBR), The Dog Knight, the Sea of Thieves series, School for Extraterrestrial Girls series, and several other series plus multiple pop culture characters. An author who might not win the big awards, but has won a place on my reading list. Their style is fun, clever, relatable and nice. Other creators contributed, such as Thomas F. Zahler, Toni Kuusisto , Brianna Garcia and Tony Fleecs, but this shows how a good author can get you to read almost anything.
So even if you do not like My Little Pony or cute, colorful stories you can still know that a good author is behind these stories that have good messages and is done in a way that your older reader can relate to and enjoy.