N.B. author’s latest book inspired by true story

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HILLSBOROUGH • New Brunswick author Jennifer McGrath says her latest book, The Pony and the Starling, was inspired by a true story about her own horse, a Welsh cob named Lady Fiona.

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The book written for children aged three to six and illustrated by Kristina Jones of Creston, B.C., tells the story of how a little girl and her mother watch an unusual friendship develop between a lonely pony and a solitary starling.

“Fiona’s paddock was in view of my kitchen window where I could see her,” McGrath said in an interview from her home in Hillsborough, overlooking the Petitcodiac River.

“Every time I went down to the paddock, there was a little starling in the paddock with her. If the pony moved to a different part of the paddock to graze, the starling would flutter after her. And if the pony was grazing, the starling would be right there between her hooves. She’d take a step and the bird would hop along with her. And the bird stayed very close to her for a very long time. And as I watched, I said to myself: ‘This is a story that I tell, someday, somehow. I wasn’t quite sure, but during the COVID-19 pandemic, I felt the need to write something beautiful.”

During the pandemic, McGrath lost a border collie named Danny and decided to turn her grief into a happy story.

“I wanted to write something beautiful and there’s something about processing a loss or grief, when you tap into a vein of creativity. I had a lot of memories of Danny that were tied up with the pony and I thought: ‘I know how that story works now.’ So I sat down and it flowed right out.”

McGrath wrote the story about the pony and the starling before Fiona passed away at the age of 17, so its publication in 2025 is a tribute to two lost pets.

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But McGrath says the book has overlapping themes about the relationship between a girl and her mother.

“It’s being attuned to the natural world around you, a sense of place, a sense of home and the relationships that create that sense of home, the pony and the starling, the girl and her mother,” she says.

McGrath says her goal as a writer is to put a sense of beauty and peace back into the world, by observing interactions of nature and creatures, like the pony and the starling.

The Pony and the Starling was illustrated by Jones, who captured the likeness of Fiona for the cover art.

“I followed her work and I was thrilled when she said she could take on this project,” McGrath said. “She captured the spirit of Fiona and the pony perfectly and the landscape in the background.”

She said collaborating with an artist on a picture book takes inspiration and trust to make the words and pictures blend together to tell the story.

“You always need to give the artist room for their own creative vision, and her vision aligned wonderfully with mine,” McGrath said. “The seed of my inspiration is usually from the landscape and the animals I know but everybody brings a little of themselves to the story. The reader may see a pony or a dog or a farmhouse that they knew as a child, and that’s what you really want, a reader connection.”

McGrath said picture books are for everyone and hopes her works will help create a bond between parents and the children they read to.

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The Pony and the Starling is published by Groundwood Books of Toronto, with a release date of Feb. 4.

Jennifer McGrath’s previous books:

• Pugs Cause Traffic Jams (2022): The illustrated story of a little dog who runs away from home and causes trouble in traffic.

• The Snow Knows (2017): A picture book for children about the secret hiding places of wild animals in the winter woods.

• Gadzooks, the Christmas Goose (2010): A goose gets into trouble before Christmas dinner.

• The White Cave Escape (2009): A group of New Brunswick children are trapped in the middle of a raging forest fire, searching for a place to hide.

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