Vendu Pony by Spain, George NEUF

This is a true story about a magical day in the authors neighborhood in 1946, when, as one of the little boys this story is about, he learned something that changed his life forever. Billy Bob, TC, Double M and others were the best friends of his childhood, and those decades were a different time, when children could run loose, and did. When they played with pocket knives and shot each other with rubber-guns and BB-guns and used inappropriate language when their parents couldnt hear. And when they learned unexpected lessons in unexpected places. There are some parents who will be unhappy because the children in this story use language adults might wish they did not ... though all children no doubt do so, when their parents are not around. Some readers are going to be disappointed because the neighborhood in the story is not an inclusive one, so not all children will find visual images of themselves reflected here. But the lesson itself is a universal one. Maybe it is for our children. Or maybe its for us. Things aint always the way they appear to be.