Natale Ghent

Award winning American/Canadian author. She was born in Illinois, near Chicago in 1962, but the family moved to a farm in Canada when she was seven. As a child, her main interests were putting on magic shows (she wanted to be a magician when she grew up!), writing stories and riding horses. She studied English literature at university, and also novel writing and communications. She also studied architecture, but soon decided that particular career was not for her, and instead began to write novels. Her books are aimed at children and young adults and have been highly acclaimed. Two feature ponies and form a short series.

Natale Ghent has her own website where you can find out more about her and all her books.

Nat Series:

1) NO SMALL THING
(HARPER TROPHY PB [CANADA] 2003)
(1st UK edition WALKER PB 2005)
Reprinted in paperback in the USA by Candlewick Press in 2005
Also published in the UK in paperback by Walker.
SUMMARY: When Nat and his two sisters see an advert for a free pony in the local paper, they persuade their mother to let them keep Smokey. The pony helps Nat come to terms with the abandonment of the family by his father and his sometimes fractious relationships with his siblings. But when a fire burns down the barn it looks like they may have to give Smokey up.

2) ALL THE WAY HOME
(HARPER TROPHY PB (CANADA) 2006)
Also published by Harper Collins in the USA.
SUMMARY: Nat and his family move to a new smaller apartment and so have money to enable them to keep Smokey. But when his mother becomes sick Nat knows he will have to face up to his conflicting feelings for his absent father and go and look for him.

Collector's Info:
As far as I know these were only published in paperback. Both books were published in Canada and America and are very easy to find there. No Small Thing was also published in the UK and is still in print here. All the Way Home does not appear to have been published in Britain however and can be quite hard to find for British readers.