A horse is a horse, of course of course
Rating:
4 / 5
The ultimate girl/horse story. There are plenty of tales in which a young girl bonds with a very special horse. This is the rare book in which the girl not only bonds with a horse but, in the end, becomes one herself (as well as that horse's mate). Paul Goble made quite a career out of telling Native American folktales in picture book form. In this particular story, a girl's love for four-legged beasts is taken to its logical extreme.
In this book, a girl once cared for her tribe's horses during the day. She would water them and find them places to feed. One day, a storm rose while the girl slept and the horses grazed. In a panic, the animals began to stampede away, and it was only by her skill that the girl was able to climb aboard one. When at last they stopped, the girl met the leader of all the wild horses, a beautiful spotted stallion. The girl continued to live with the creatures until one day she was successfully captured by members of her own tribe. She was happy to see her parents once more, but begged to return to the horses. The tribe agreed and each year she would return briefly to give the people a new colt. When she didn't return one year, riders swore that they saw a black mare that greatly resembled the girl, now the mate of the spotted stallion. The book ends with a Navaho's song about his horse and Black Elk (an Oglala Sioux)?s dream about a stallion's song.
I was a little shocked that this tale never identified the tribe to which the girl belonged. Since, however, this is an original story and not a retelling of a classic Native American tale (or so the book would lead you to believe) I wasn't too perturbed by the omission. After all, when people tell stories about themselves, they rarely identify their nationality or allegiance. In this book, the girl's tribe is referred to simply as "the people". If you've ever seen a Paul Goble book before, you know what to expect when you read this. His characters are fairly featureless, though as an artist he spends a significant bit of time detailing their clothing, hair, weapons, homes, etc. He expresses a great love of color in all his pictures, and it's quite enjoyable to flip through the shots of multicolored horses. In its construction, this book is incredibly lovely. But the question that came to my mind while reading it was, how interesting will children find this tale? For those kids obsessed by horses, I think this book will go over like gangbusters. After all, as horse-love goes, this girl is an extreme example. In other ways, the book is a bit dull. When you illustrate a tale in which emotions are not visible on the characters, you're going to lose those readers that like seeing happy and sad expressions. It's a style choice on the part of the author/illustrator and while I respect it I cannot wholly recommend it.
Just the same, it's a lovely book to flip through. Just know that it is an original Native American tale and not a retelling. For every child that has imagined running away and joining a band of wild animals, this is the perfect story to read. A lovely lively concoction.
Wild Horses actually do drag this young girl away
Rating:
5 / 5
"The Girl Who Loved Wild Horses" is a straightforward tale of the Plains Indians, retold and illustrated by Paul Goble, unlike those that he has told about the trickster, Iktomi. This myth does not folllow any one story exactly but is put together from a great number of stories belonging to the peoples who lived on the Great Plains that Goble had read or listened to over the years. This story is premised on the importance of horses to these peoples. The title character is a girl in the village would loved horses so much that she would led them to drink at the river and when she spoke softly to them they would follow her. Her people recognized that she understood horses in a special way, which explains why this story ends the way that it does.Every day after doing her chores the young girl would run off to be with the horses. One day there is a great lightning storm that drives the horses, carrying the young girl, over the horizon to a land she had never seen before. There she finds a beautiful spotted stallion, stronger and prouder and more handsome than any horse she had ever dreamed of. He is the leader of all the wild horses who roamed the hills and he welcome her to live with them. But a year later two hunters from her people discover her in the hills where the wild horses lived and they will try to bring the girl back to her parents. The question is whether the girl can be happy back with her people now that she has lived with the wild horses. Goble's distinctive artwork, which recalls the art of the Plains Indians of the 19th century, is particularly well suited to this simple tale. As was the case in one of his earlier books, "The Gift of the Sacred Dog," which told how the first horses came into the lives of the people, you can tell that Goble likes to draw horses. In "The Girl Who Loves Wild Horses" he has ample opportunity to draw dozens of them, as well as the young girl decked out in her colorful garb, and I particularly liked the plant life he draws this time around. No wonder this book was the winner of the Caldecott Medal.
Beautiful art.
Rating:
5 / 5
Paul Goble transcends perfection. Any artist, or anyone who loves art, will want to look at this book again and again...Simon & Schuster recommends the book for ages 5 to 8, but any child approaching or in his or her early teens would be enchanted by the simplicity of the artwork and the way it so powerfully conveys the story the words tell. Even adults will enjoy this poetic picture book.
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