An award winning children's author is looking to the brass band movement to help bring to life a story about an escapee pit pony and the Travellers who welcome him into their family.

Storyteller Richard O'Neill's picture book 'Polonius The Pit Pony' was published at the start of July and has already been met with widespread critical and popular acclaim.

Children's tale

Aimed at children between the ages of 4 and 9, and with wonderful illustrations by artist Feronia Parker Thomas, it tells the tale of Polonius, a small pit pony, who on his annual break from his life down the coal mine meets a group of horses who live and work with a family of traditional Travellers.

Fascinated by their values and way of life, he escapes from the mine and joins them. His new family treats him well, and he wishes he could do something to repay their kindness.

When the family face an unexpected hardship, Polonius finds a use for the skills he learned from his past in the pits — the result (without giving the story away) is a dramatic dash that has a happy ever after ending!

Storyteller

The author is a sixth generation Romani storyteller, who learned his skills from some of the best Travelling storytellers in the United Kingdom.

He also co-wrote the picture books 'Yokki and the Parno Gry' and 'Ossiri and the Bala Mengro' with author Katharine Quarmby in 2016 — the latter shortlisted for the 2017 Little Rebels award.

The grandson of a coal face worker, O'Neill's heritage is also strongly connected to mining, and is the driving force behind his latest picture book.

Celebrate the pit pony role

He told 4BR: "I wanted to celebrate the role of pit ponies in coal mining, and allow children from both Travelling and mining communities to be able to celebrate their culture and heritage, in a fun and interesting way.

Now I think it would be great if we could get together with local community bands to produce a live performance of the story with a small brass ensemble accompaniment — one that can draw the children into the story even further and make it an even more magical experience."

He added: "It would also be great to link up with a young composer and take the story around schools and libraries — linking up different aspects of community life and broadening understanding into the mining, Travelling and brass band communities all in one!"

I think it would be great if we could get together with local bands to produce a live performance with a small brass ensemble accompaniment — one that can draw the children into the story even furtherRichard O'Neill

Short trailer

Richard can be contacted at: rroneill@aol.com

A short trailer about the book can be viewed at:

https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?shva=1#inbox/FMfcgxvzLNfMrSLJZsXGGgbgQCQDBFdC?projector=1

You can find out more about the book at: http://www.childs-play.com/