content: I had to read this book for school and in my opion the book is not in any way enjoyable or outstanding. It is supposed to be about a young boy maturing but the few changes that happen to him in extent of about two years are subtle and unimportant. He does learn about death although through the red pony (why is that the title of the book when the pony is only mention in the first two chapters then forgotten?). This book merely sleeps along drifting slowly and clumsily between chapters. It would have been much better if it went more into depth of the little boy's parents' and grandfather's history. Why Gitano, the old man who lived in an adobe house near the farm, went into the mountains is not told leaving you to make up your own conclusion. The only part of the book that stands out is the grandfather's speech at the very end of the book about westering and how the times have changed.