King of the Wind, Newbery Winner 1949

 

 

For some reason I was never as captivated by horses as other young girls frequently are. They were nice and pretty I guess, but I never really sought them out in fiction. As such I never read the classic horse stories such as: Black Beauty, Misty of Chincoteague, The Black Stallion, My Friend Flicka, or this selection, King of the Wind. Truth be told I was expecting it to be a bit of a slog; once I picked it up though, I found it nearly impossible to put down.
When I read a book about a subject I know relatively little about, I like to keep Google open on my laptop. It's better than reading with a dictionary in my opinion because I can explore deeper into a subject and not just get a definition. With this book I found myself looking into the history of horse racing, the foundation of the Thoroughbred horse breed, and the greatest racehorses of all time, amongst other things.
This is a beautifully written tale that captured my imagination; it's like a classic fairy tale, but with a horse. Why I never hear about this book compared to other horse books is a mystery. Marguerite Henry had true talent for writing an emotional tale and in-depth characters. I found it very easy to relate to her characters and found it quite a shock to learn, nearly a third of the way through the book, that the principal character is mute! I had to stop and look back, he had conveyed so much emotion that I never paid attention to the fact that he had no dialogue. I am interested to see if the author's other works are as superbly written as this one.