Evan, the boy at the centre of this interesting story, is eleven years old, but the action will fit a range of ages. THE SHADOW PONY starts with Evan learning some of his family’s history after relocating to Cardiff, Wales. His mum came to help Evan’s Grandad, Harry Jones, who fell and broke his arm. His dad is an opera singer working in London, and his brother is in college. On a tour with his new school, Evan goes down a coal mine.

Learning about working in the dark is quite scary for the boy, because he’s nervous of the dark, but he’s determined. The mine used to employ pit ponies after the law banned women and children from work underground. Hearing what happened to the ponies afterwards, and about his grandfather’s career, fills a good deal of the pages. That’s fitted in between all the family activity, which is confusing for the lad and, at times, for the reader too. For a start, Evan’s mum has a new boyfriend, Nick, a former rugby player. Nick has a daughter with his former partner, called Melly, who is twelve years old, and she comes to stay. Evan has a friendly dog, Okie, but Melly brings her cat, Blue, and the pets don’t get along. Then there’s the puzzling way Grandad keeps forgetting things or getting on the wrong bus.

School isn’t much fun, and Evan decides to make a project on the local mine, looking at the pit ponies. But when he tries to ask Grandad about this, the old man gets upset, and his memory deteriorates. Evan is convinced this is somehow his fault, and he thinks if Melly weren’t here, there would be less chaos. Melly even has a phone, and he doesn’t, and she keeps trying to ban his dog from the living room to let Blue feel safe.

At times, Evan is not very nice, and he tries to convince Melly to leave even though she clearly has nowhere to go, and kids aren’t allowed to live alone. I thought he was being selfish because his world was not too bad, just because a girl was sleeping in his older brother’s bedroom. Evan loves the dog but hasn’t trained her well, and she frightens the cat, who can’t escape. Evan has to grow up, in other words. The author, Olivia Wakeford, could have made him less of a misery, but some readers will identify with him. The issue of Grandad’s onset of dementia is carefully handled, but again, it’s scary for Evan as nobody explains what may be happening. We see that young people have no agency, and may feel to blame for problems that are clearly not of their making. THE SHADOW PONY has not many real ponies, unfortunately, but the shadow of the pit equipment hangs over the lives of former miners, and it’s good for young people to read about this legacy. David Litchfield provides gentle illustrations.