"The White Stallion"

HOME SCHOOL BOOK REVIEW

Book: The White Stallion

Author: Elizabeth Shub

Illustrator: Rachel Isadora

Publisher: Yearling, republished in 1995

ISBN-13: 987-0-440-41292-2

ISBN-10: 0-440-41292-7

Language level: 1 (nothing objectionable)

Reading level: Ages 7-0

Rating: 5 stars (EXCELLENT)

Reviewed by Wayne S. Walker

For more information e-mail homeschoolbookreview@gmail.com

     Shub, Elizabeth.  The White Stallion (published in 1982 by Greenwillow Books, a division of William Morrow and Company Inc., 1350 Avenue of the Americas, New York City, NY  10019; republished in 1996 by Bantam Doubleday Dell Books for Young Readers, a division of Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group, 1540 Broadway, New York City, NY  10036).  How do you think that you would feel if you were lost while riding a horse with a wagon train in pioneer days?  As the book opens, a little girl named Gretchen is being told a story by her grandmother about her own grandmother, also named Gretchen.  In 1845, great-great-grandmother Gretchen is traveling west with three other families in Conestoga wagons.  She is the youngest of four, with older sister Trudy and older brothers John and Billy.  Once they see a herd of mustangs.

     One day, while following a trail along the Guadeloupe River in Texas, the horse, named Anna, that Gretchen is riding wanders away from the wagon train.  Night soon falls, and Gretchen is lost, alone, and afraid.  But then a magnificent white stallion appears.  Will Anna run off with the white stallion’s herd and leave Gretchen all by herself?  Or will the white stallion see that Anna takes Gretchen back home?   The story of the white stallion is retold from Tales of the Mustang by James Frank Dobie.  It is a single chapter that is ideal to appeal to young readers.  Their attention will be captured immediately, and they will eagerly turn the pages to see what happens next.  It is short, but very sweet!