Jill's Gymkhana (The Jill Books by Ruby Ferguson Book 1)

Product Information

Knight used Bonar Dunlop’s illustrations for their versions, and cut the number from the original 27 that Caney provided to 13.

These books have not been updated in the years since they were first published (1949 for Jill's Gymkhana) so some may find the diction slightly old fashioned but I think most pony mad youngsters these days wouldn't mind at all and would still find them wonderful. It’s a must read for anyone who loves ponies and although some of it is quite dated it still resonates with any child who dreams of owning their own pony. Between 1949 and 1962 she gained great popularity with the "Jill" books for her step-grandchildren, Libs, Sallie, and Pip.The Hampton and Armada versions have an extra phrase: ‘getting me down and making me pretty unbearable to live with. The Hampton printing has an addition to the original text on page 38 (both versions): to ‘You see, for ages I haven’t been any use at all, since I couldn’t walk, and it was getting me down.

I think she’ll find the language difficult to fathom and the pounds, shillings and pence unimaginable. Soon she is soaring, literally, and gets to take part in her first gymkhana, with the chance to win a coveted rosette. As a pony mad child growing up in the 80s, I was spoilt for choice when it came to literary heroines - Jinny, Jackie, Jean (why am I only now realising they all started with “J”? Jill's voice is wonderfully self deprecating and wry, and she has quite a propensity for getting into scrapes.A touch of a toothache, that's all, but you know what these thoroughbreds are like, the least touch of pain and they act as if they were dying. Also I recommend always finding an unchanged version; yes there is some language that isn't acceptable in 2021, and the money is weird, but a) if you update the money it's still always locked in time to when that updated version was published; the 1990s sanitised versions that tried to change the money values are now wrong too, for example and b) reading racist language from the 40s didn't make me racist as a kid/teen in the 1990s because I wasn't dumb and knew it was from another time? lines including a four-line verse have been removed describing Jill purchasing flowers and a card to take her mother; a short description of the dental hospital and replaced by a modified abridged version without the verse.

A guick note on names: if you have the very first Knight paperback from 1968, you will know that Black Boy becomes Danny Boy in that edition. These books are extremely well written, amusing and sometimes slightly tongue in cheek, especially when a terribly grown up 12 year old Jill refers to someone as "being in her 40's but not too old to enjoy herself"! The blurb on the back of the book would have you believe that the story is about how Jill has to work really hard to afford her pony.You can change your choices at any time by visiting Cookie preferences, as described in the Cookie notice. To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. I’d love to think that Jill will find a new legion of young fans (though I suspect some explanations from aging parents will be needed! Written in 1949, read by me around 1972 and rediscovered thanks to Lucy Mangan’s wonderful Bookworm. I'm still frustrated that this book randomly skips a year, because I could've taken a lot lot more of Jill learning the basics, but of course, there are plenty more books about that.