It's official - just because Marguerite Henry can write a Newbery winning horse book that becomes one of my favorites doesn't mean everyone can. I'm saying it right now - unless you're reading all the Newbery books I do not recommend this book and I especially do not recommend for children.
Where to start?
The book starts off nice enough - if slow. We follow the adventures of young Smoky in the mountains - presumably the Rocky Mountains (Wyoming was mentioned but I'm not sure if that was where the Rocking R lands were or not). Anyhow happy horsey antics make up the first 80 pages. Like I said this part was nice - if we just had the life of a wild horse for 200 or so pages it would have been a solid enough story. Heavy on the dialect, and poeticism - but solid.
Now - the middle piece. Uggggggh. The next 120 pages could have been condensed sooooooo much. Basically it is how Clint, a bronc buster, broke Smoky and became his rider. Smoky only liked Clint and he was a mighty fine horse. They ride the range for a few years until Smoky attains legendary status. It took me for-ev-er to get through this part. In the end I bought the Kindle book and used some fancy feature I've never needed before that drug the words across the screen, meaning I had to keep going or get lost. This chunk of the book contained important set-up but very little in the way of interesting plot.
So by this point in the book you would honestly have been better off choosing almost any other horse book that I'm familiar with and probably a fair number that I'm not familiar with. If you want the story of the West from the horse's mouth there's also this old animated movie - which I dug, it gives you a pretty similar plot sans the ending.
Alright, there are 120 pages left. What could they possibly bring us? Well, two things really: the plot and... racism.
Let's be honest the Newbery - and children's literature in general is no stranger to racism. It pops up all the time in things this old. The scale also ranges dramatically - not that it is ever right, but some offenses are definitely more egregious than others. I have read almost 90% of the Newbery winners now and this one was the one that made me think less, "Wow, this was written in a different era." and more, "Yikes."
This is gonna take an entire post in the future, but for now here are some choice quotes from the book - a book marketed to Ages 8-12 according to my copy printed in 2008 or later.
"All of him, from the toe of his gunny sack covered boots to the dark face which showed under the wore out black hat, pointed out as the man being a half-breed of Mexican and other blood that's darker, and noticing the cheap, wore-out saddle, the ragged saddle-blanket on a horse that should of had some chance to feed instead of being tied up, showed that he was a halfbreed from the bad side, not caring, and with no pride." (219-20)
We get many more instances referring to "his kind", "half-breed", and "the breed".
"There was all about the horse to show that he'd been right in his first dislike for the dark faced hombre." (240)
"But there was one thing which the riders noticed in him as most queer, and that was in the way he seemed to hate some humans worse than others - his hate was plainest for the face that showed dark." (251)
"'Say, cowboy,' (the sheriff) finally says, 'don't scatter that hombre's remains too much, you know we got keep record of that kind the same as if it was a white man, and I don't want to be looking all over the streets to find out who he was.'" (315)
Can anyone in good faith give this to an 8 year old? I hope not. Again, I've got a dedicated post planned, but it's going to require some planning and research.
For the record Will James was surprised he won the Newbery since Smoky was published for adults... my future blog plans include comparing the Newbery winners to honors and choosing the book I believe was the best. The honor books for 1927 are - lost to time or never existed. Was this adult book really the best for the year???
Some internet sleuthing later...
I turned up two other contenders on Wikipedia (my sleuthing isn't very comprehensive today) - Doctor Dolittle's Caravan by Hugh Lofting and The Hungry Tiger of Oz by Ruth Plumly Thompson. I haven't read either of these yet, but I can imagine the Lofting would have taken the prize had it not been for the tiny detail that he'd won four years previous. If anyone can name a 1926 American children's book that deserved the win let me in on the secret please!
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