So there I was last week, jammed into the book sorting closet at the library, going through the latest round of discards in preparation for our next book sale, when I met a book I had enjoyed nigh on thirty years ago--Can I Get There by Candlelight? by Jean Slaughter Doty (1980, Macmillan, middle grade, 112 pages). JSD wrote scads of pony books, but in this one she added an element of fantasy to the mix. Remembering that this was a time travel book, I took it home with me....How many miles to Babylon?
Three score and ten.
Can I get there by Candlelight?
Yes, and back again.
JSD uses this old rhyme as the basis for her story. Candlelight is the name of a pony belonging to a rather lonely girl named Gail, whose family are staying for the summer in an old coachman's house that had once been part of a grand 19th-century estate called Babylon. And it's Candlelight, the pony, who takes Gail back into the past, when Babylon was still a home (get it? "Can I get there by Candlelight?")
Gail and Candlelight (aka "Candy") discover an old path through the woods, that leads to the beautiful gardens, and there they meet a lonely girl, Hilary, left for the summer in the care of a governess while her parents are abroad. Gail gradually picks up on the subtle clues (sarcasm alert--they are screamingly obvious) that every time she visits Hilary she travels back in time, but being more interested in horses than history, she's content to spend her summer learning to ride side-saddle, and doesn't want to bother about the strange and magical experience that is happening to her.
But when, at the end of the summer, Hilary takes off with Candy, leaving Gail stranded on foot in the past, Gail is forced to confront the fact that time travel can be a scary thing....(this exciting bit only lasts seven pages, which is too bad).
It's a book that I think would please the pony aficionado more than the true lover of time travel, mainly because that's where the interests of the two main characters lie. Hilary seems either utterly oblivious to fact that Gail is from another time or determined not to question it (she notices that Gail is wearing "cowboy" pants, but that's about it). Gail has the advantage of having found Hilary's riding gear old and moldering in the loft above Candy's stable, and knows that in her real life Babylon crumbled into ruin years ago, but she too is determined not to let any strangeness disturb her friendship with Hilary.
I do think that it would seem lovely and enchanting to the imaginative girl who loves horses...so if you have such a girl reader in your life, you might well do worse than to offer her this book (there are lots of reviews on Goodreads and Amazon corroborating this). But it all ends up a bit disappointing to me as an adult reader--it's a neat premise, and a nice description of two pony loving girls and their beautiful pony being happy together, but it's not one I think I will ever need to re-read again.
Especially since I am really annoyed that JSD never tells us what happens to Hilary. Spoiler Alert--the last we see of her, she's lying, possibly dead, next to the wreckage of the pony cart in which she had galloped off with Candy into the night. How hard would it have been for Gail to have found out the end of her friend's story?
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WOW, I'm so amazed you found this book! I was HAUNTED by this book when I read it in 4th grade-- for, as you mention, the fact that YOU DON'T FIND OUT EXACTLY WHAT HAPPENED. It was probably the first book I'd ever read with an ambiguous ending like that. It really freaked me out, and made me think-- like, maybe in real life there ARE things you will never know about what happened to people you knew once, or whatever.
ReplyDeleteI think it's funny that you mention the horse-loving thing. I was one of the few girls in the history of the world who did NOT love horse books, to the point of scorning them. But I was intrigued by the time travel, and the making-friends-across-history (still a fantasy of mine), and so, considering I still remember this book so much over twenty years later, I guess it worked for me anyway!
I've been trying to remember the name of this book forever! I've actually read it a dozen times or so when I was in elementary n middle school
DeleteI was hoping someone else might have read it! And even though ambiguity has its place, how hard would it have been to write a two page epilogue????
ReplyDeleteI like the making friends across history theme lots too--and wish there had been less interest on the part of the girls in learning how to ride side saddle, and bit more interest in each other!
But still, very enchanting to the young reader....
I have still got my copy of this wonderful book since my teenage years(am in my forties)and I still love it.
ReplyDeleteGoing through the boxes of my old childhood books to try and find my copy. I came in here because I was looking for a name of my new candle making business and I remember the poem and the book. "Can I get there by Candlelight."
DeleteI hope you find your copy! And good luck with the candle making business!
DeleteWow. The same things happened to me. Red it in the 1980's when I was about 10 or so then found it online and read it again. I did a blog post also. Love this book.
ReplyDeleteAlso love how you made a list of time travel books. So interesting.
My daughter read the story to me. I still have my 1980 copy. Didn't remember it, and I am now crying, at 51 years of age, because I want to know what happened to Hillary? Ugh.
ReplyDeleteI recall reading this book in the 4th grade and was absolutely transported! I wish that novels made me feel that way as an adult!
ReplyDeleteIsn't that the truth!
DeleteI loved this book when i was in elementary school and it judt popped into my head.
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