Summary

R. J. Palacio opens her novel, Pony, with an excerpt from the Boneville Chronicle about a boy who survived a lightning strike. The article details the child’s narrow escape from death after he took refuge under a tree during a storm. He was unharmed except for an image of the oak that was emblazoned onto his back. In Chapter 1, the first-person narrator, Silas Bird, explains that his father, Martin Bird, was inspired to continue practicing photography after he was struck by lightning. While Martin had been unsuccessful in supporting his family by making daguerreotypes, the lighting strike reinvigorated his enthusiasm for the photographic arts. He developed a process for transferring images onto paper using light and a negative that could be reproduced.

One night, Silas was roused by Mittenwool, a ghost, who warned him that a group of horsemen were approaching...