Smiling faces and cheers of laughter fill a room at Riverfront Park's Looff Carrousel as children color scenes from a magical tale in which the ornate, magnificent horses spinning round its center come to life one special night. They've just heard this story read to them by its Spokane-based author-illustrator duo. The children's warm animation and joy reflected on their parents' faces lights up the snow-covered park, which the room overlooks.
Mary Carpenter is the author of Ponies in the Park, and has always felt Riverfront Park's magic, too. With the help of local artist Mary Pat Kanaley, Carpenter was able to bring that magic to life in their newly published book.
In the story, a young girl named Grace is disappointed to be stuck in the hospital overnight on her birthday. Unexpectedly though, magic dust, moonlight, and a birthday wish bring the historic Looff Carrousel and other art sculptures in the park to life, and together they help Grace save a puppy in need.
"The carousel and the history of the carousel is just so magical," Carpenter says. "Wandering throughout the park and coming up with the story, I just thought it would be really neat to have the park come alive."
After moving to Spokane 10 years ago from South Carolina with her daughter Grace — who the book's lead character is named after — Carpenter's family spent a lot of time in the park. Carpenter is the manager of Inland Neurosurgery and Spine at Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center, and this is the first book she's written.
When Carpenter had the idea for the story, she decided to apply for a $10,000 Spokane Arts Grant Award to help fund the project.
"I wanted to apply for the grant, but a children's picture book is nothing without the pictures," Carpenter says. "So I reached out to Mary Pat, told her about the idea, and we met and we hit it off immediately."
Kanaley, an illustrator and former middle school teacher, describes writing with Carpenter as a dance. Carpenter had the story, and whatever Kanaley could illustrate from it without the need for extra words on the page, she did.
"The real challenging thing with a children's book is normally you have to keep it under 1,000 words for the age," Carpenter says. "And so you would think that writing a children's book would be easy, but it's actually really difficult because you have to be very selective in the choice of words."
Looff Carrousel gift shop, Wishing Tree Books, Auntie's Bookstore, Atticus Coffee & Gifts, The Small Biz Shoppe, Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture, Sacred Heart gift shop, and online at ponies-in-the-park.myshopify.com
In the story, Grace finds a bottle of magic dust in an antique bag she's gifted for her birthday. The dust brings her stuffed puppy, Lily, to life, as well as the carousel ponies. As she rides on one of the carousel pony's backs around the park, Grace scatters the dust on other local landmarks throughout Riverfront: its Bloomsday runners, Native salmon fishers, red wagon, garbage goat and the purple butterfly from Expo '74. When Lily accidentally falls into the Spokane River, these sculptures work together to get the puppy safely back into Grace's arms.
Ponies in the Park is not just a magical story. It was also imperative for Kanaley and Carpenter to use the project as a means to give back to the Spokane community.
"The money from the grant went to help produce the book, but it also pays for us to give one to every second grade school teacher and elementary school library" in Spokane, Carpenter says.
Carpenter and Kanaley geared the book for second graders. In Spokane schools, second grade is when students write their first paper. Kanaley says one local mom already reached out to share that her daughter is planning to write her paper on Ponies in the Park.
As a former teacher, Kanaley knows how much educators appreciate having authors and illustrators visit their classrooms. Both she and Carpenter plan to visit local second grade classrooms to teach students about the writing process and share their book with kids.
The last five pages of Ponies in the Park include a historical timeline of Riverfront Park and provide background on each art installation and landmark featured in the book. There are also two scavenger hunts in the back of the book, one to do inside the actual park, and one for hidden images in the book itself.
"My hope is just that it would allow people to have a love of Riverfront Park and learn more about the history, and then have the art appreciation because of the information in the back of the book," Carpenter says.
The two have talked to a number of people who feel a connection to the park's history, whether it be growing up in Spokane and going there as a child, or attending the World's Fair in 1974.
Besides the SAGA funding, Carpenter and Kanaley did other fundraising to sponsor the donation of copies to Vanessa Behan, Isaac's Bookshelf and the Hutton Settlement.
"It's a big thing for Mary and I, you know, we want to give back," Kanaley says. ♦
