My Best To Steinbeck

Dear Mr. Steinbeck,

My writing teacher, Carolyn, helped me notice some amazing characteristics that make great writers. You are one of these great writers that our writers group got to know through your book The Red Pony.

You write in a way that makes little things impactful on me. For instance, "His mouth worked strenuously," and "Doubletree Mutt watched them [Jody and Billy Buck] over his shoulder; then he dug furiously, growled, sounded little sharp yelps to indicate that the gopher was practically caught."

At times, you take Jody off on a little adventure of his own. It could be three pages, or it could be a paragraph. And it always gives me inspiration on ideas for my own writing. When Jody went hunting with his lunch pail after school made me want to write about small adventures of animals.

The characters that you develop within your book are easy to get to know since you describe their actions and feelings so well. Carl Tiflin was the easiest for me to understand quickly because of his stern, unsympathetic comments: "You come with us after breakfast!" and "A horse isn't any lap-dog kind of thing," and "I'm having a hard enough time keeping this ranch out of the back of Italy without taking on anybody else to feed."

Thank you, Mr. Steinbeck, for writing The Red Pony.

Jacob