The Black Stallion - Chapter Books

The Black Stallion
By Walter Farley
(Random House, 1969 - original in 1941)

Meet a book that I absolutely adored when I was in elementary school. The Black Stallion was one of my favorite and most re-read books in my growing collection of all-things-horse.

Walter Farley created a world for me. That world consisted of danger, excitement, horses, adventure, challenge, horses, and more horses. I didn't care if the main character was a boy. He was doing things that I wanted to do - traveling, getting shipwrecked (ok, I may skip that one), and rescuing a beautiful, strong-willed black stallion to be his own horse. What could be better?

The Black Stallion is still one of my beloved favs. The horse world in Farley's books was my world of escape. In the pages of his writing, I could do and be anything.

Isn't that what good books are for? To let us get away, learn more about ourselves, dream, and give us the chance to live vicariously through the choices and actions of another. A perfect day back then would be reading for hours and then getting up to go ride my own horse, pretending that I was on a similar adventure. Never mind that I was in a desert, my horse was a scrawny nearly spotless Appaloosa and sometimes knot-head, and the extent of my adventure usually ended with me walking home on foot.

I recommend The Black Stallion for elementary and intermediate school students. And any girl who loves horses.


KID KANDY:

1. Watch the movie! For a book adaptation, they did a pretty good job.

2. Get outside and play horses. I remember doing this well into the intermediate years. We were the horses and the riders. Our legs were the horse legs, and the rest of our bodies became adventurers setting out looking for danger. Those 2-legged horses could gallop, trot, switch leads, back up, and do all sorts of great things. Just check out the way our horses could barrel race!

And you've never seen a younger child turn down the chance to ride the horsie (you or I) in their own version of playing horses.

Giddy-up!

Blaze and I in sunny Arizona (1978)

Angie Quantrell is a long-time horse lover. While she is unable to have a horse right now, she dreams of the day when perhaps a 4-legged beauty will allow her to ride away on an adventure, real or make-believe.