 First edition cover | |
| Author | Joyce Barkhouse |
|---|---|
| Illustrator | Henry Van Der Linde |
| Country | Canada |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Children's novel |
| Publisher | Gage |
Publication date | 1990 |
| Media type | |
| Pages | 116 pp |
| ISBN | 9780771570230 |
| OCLC | 19973684 |
Pit Pony is a children's historical novel written by Joyce Barkhouse. It was published in 1990 and won the first Ann Connor Brimer Award. Pit Pony was adapted for television in 1997 and 1999.
In Pit Pony, Barkhouse describes life in a coal-mining town in turn-of-the-century Cape Breton and also deals with the importance of education. It is the story of Willie and Gem, a pit pony. Willie is an eleven-year-old boy forced by family circumstances to work as a trapper in a Cape Breton coal mine, and Gem is a Sable Island mare working as a pit pony. As they work together, a strong bond develops between boy and horse.
The book describes the grim realities of life for a young miner – cold, exhaustion, fear – discomforts and dangers that also affected the horses. When Willie and Gem are trapped in the mine during a "bump" – with falling rock and timber, and choking dust – Willie must choose between escaping with Gem or saving the life of another young miner. Willie's choice to save the young miner's life over Gem's life sets Willie free – free to leave the mines and to pursue his education. As it turns out, however, Gem had been pregnant, and her foal is saved.
Pit Pony was named as notable by the Canadian Library Association; received the first Ann Connor Brimer Award in 1991 for "outstanding contribution to children's literature in Atlantic Canada"; and was the unanimous choice of Nova Scotia librarians to be produced as a Talking Book for the CNIB, for national and international distribution.
Pit Pony was made into a CBC-TV movie by Cochran Entertainment (1997), won three Gemini Awards, and became a 44-episode TV series. [1]
Cape Breton Island is a rugged and irregularly shaped island on the Atlantic coast of North America and part of the province of Nova Scotia, Canada.
Sydney is a former city and urban community on the east coast of Cape Breton Island in Nova Scotia, Canada within the Cape Breton Regional Municipality. Sydney was founded in 1785 by the British, was incorporated as a city in 1904, and dissolved on 1 August 1995, when it was amalgamated into the regional municipality.
George "Jock" Purdon was a British poet and songwriter.
Margaret's Museum is a 1995 Canadian-British drama film directed by Mort Ransen and based on Sheldon Currie's novel The Glace Bay Miners' Museum. It stars Helena Bonham Carter, Clive Russell, and Kate Nelligan. The film won six Genie Awards, including acting awards for Bonham Carter and Nelligan.
Glace Bay is a community in the eastern part of the Cape Breton Regional Municipality in Nova Scotia, Canada. It forms part of the general area referred to as Industrial Cape Breton.
The Cape Breton Development Corporation, or DEVCO, was a Government of Canada Crown corporation. It ceased operation on December 31, 2009, after being amalgamated with Enterprise Cape Breton Corporation (ECBC).
The Men of the Deeps are a male choral ensemble composed of former coal miners from Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia.
New Waterford is an urban community in the Cape Breton Regional Municipality of Nova Scotia, Canada.
Davis Day, also known as Miners' Memorial Day is an annual day of remembrance observed on June 11 in coal mining communities in Nova Scotia, Canada to recognize all miners killed in the province's coal mines.
Industrial Cape Breton is a geographic region in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia. It refers to the eastern portion of Cape Breton County fronting the Atlantic Ocean on the southeastern part of Cape Breton Island.
A pit pony, otherwise known as a mining horse, was a horse, pony or mule commonly used underground in mines from the mid-18th until the mid-20th century. The term "pony" was sometimes broadly applied to any equine working underground.
William Davis was a coal miner from Cape Breton Island. He was born in Gloucestershire, England and died in New Waterford, Nova Scotia. His name is well-remembered in Nova Scotia due to the annual observance of William Davis Miners' Memorial Day in recognition of Davis and also of all miners killed in the province's coal mines.
Donkin is a Canadian rural village with a population of 532 as of 2021. Located on the picturesque coastline of Nova Scotia's Cape Breton Island, it is a part of the Cape Breton Regional Municipality. The smaller communities of Port Caledonia and Schooner Pond are directly adjacent to the village proper, connected by a single strip of road called the Donkin Highway.
Ladyshore Colliery, originally named Back o' th Barn, was situated on the Irwell Valley fault on the Manchester Coalfield in Little Lever, then in the historic county of Lancashire, England. Founded by Thomas Fletcher Senior, the colliery opened in the 1830s and mined several types of coal. It became infamous as a result of the owners' stand against the use of safety lamps in the mines. Women and children worked in the mines, under poor conditions.
The Minnie Pit disaster was a coal mining accident that took place on 12 January 1918 in Halmer End, Staffordshire, in which 155 men and boys died. The disaster, which was caused by an explosion due to firedamp, is the worst ever recorded in the North Staffordshire Coalfield. An official investigation never established what caused the ignition of flammable gases in the pit.
Joyce Carman Barkhouse was a Canadian children's writer best known for writing historical fiction. She is the aunt of Margaret Atwood, with whom she co-wrote the children's book Anna's Pet. Barkhouse achieved her greatest recognition for her novel Pit Pony.
Pit Pony is a 1999 CBC television series which tells the story of small-town life in Glace Bay, on the island of Cape Breton, Nova Scotia in 1904. The plot line revolves around the lives of the families of the men and boys who work in the coal mines.
The Ann Connor Brimer Award for Atlantic Canadian Children's Literature is a $2,000 annual award given to an Atlantic Canadian writer deemed to have made an outstanding contribution to literature for young people. Starting in 2016, the prize alternates annually between young adult and children's fiction published in the previous two years. In celebration of the award's 25th anniversary, Gavin Brimer, Ann's son, generously donated two $250 prizes for the running-up books.
People have worked as coal miners for centuries, but they became increasingly important during the Industrial revolution when coal was burnt on a large scale to fuel stationary and locomotive engines and heat buildings. Owing to coal's strategic role as a primary fuel, coal miners have figured strongly in labor and political movements since that time.
A pit pony was a pony used in underground coal mines until the late 19th century.
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