Customer Reviews

The Black Stallion Returns

5 star:		(24)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book is my personnal favorite in the Black Stallion series. Farley does a masterful job of capturing the breath-taking scope of the desert and the people who live there. This book has it all: a thrilling horserace through the desert wilderness, feuding tribes, a boy was is more than he or anyone else thinks he is, and a sceming secret tribe. Farley is at the top of his form. A must have.

What a great story! I almost couldn't catch my breath during the racing narrative! Farley spins a wonderful tale of betrayal and true friendship here. The Black Stallion Returns is even tighter in plot and more moving with Alec and Black's friendship than the very first. Read this book! You will be happier! And you will fall in love with horses like I did.

I love The Black Stallion books; all of them! They are great stories about a boy and his love for his horse. Alec shows such determination to unite with his horse, which I think that everyone should have. It's very suspenceful (is that how you spell it?) and I couldn't put it down!

The Black Stallion Returns

By Walter Farley

Adventure

Characters:

Alec is Black's owner. He loves horses. He is 14 years old. He has black hair and goes to high school. He loves Black a lot.

Black is a black stallion who Alec befriends after a shipwreck.

Henry is the short, stout, bowlegged trainer of Black. He also owns the stables Black lives in.

Mr. Volence is the owner of Sun Raider, a horse Black beat in racing. He thinks Black can improve the American racehorse.

Abu Ja' ben Ishak is Black's real owner. His hair is steel gray. His skin is tough, dry, and the color of mahogany.

Raj is about 12 years old. He guides Alec's group through the desert. He has never known his family.

Tabari is Abu's daughter. She is about 15 years old. She is very beautiful. She loves her father a lot.

The Setting:

The book takes place in Henry's stables and Alec's house in the suburbs of New York, and in Arabia.

The Plot:

Someone tries to kill Black. The next day, a man shows up and claims to be Black's real owner. They find out he is telling the truth and he takes Black to Arabia. Henry, Alec and Mr. Volence follow him to Arabia where they learn about a conflict between Abu's tribe and a neighboring tribe. The conflict is that supposedly Abu killed his best friend, who happened to be the leader of the neighboring tribe. The son of the dead leader is very vengeful. Someone re-steals Black. Abu's and the neighboring tribe are about to go to war because Abu's tribe thinks the other tribe stole Black. Alec and Raj find out the truth and save Black. The man who kidnapped Black gets away, but his men did not. Alec and Raj help make the Tribes friends again and Raj finds his family. They hold a big race like every year. During the race the man who kidnapped Black tries to shot Black. Instead, the others tribe leader shot the man. At the end of the race the other tribe's leader who was riding for his tribe and Alec, who was riding for Abu's tribe, were racing their horses neck and neck. Black and Alec win by a small space. At the end, Tabari marries the chief of the other tribe. The tribes make peace and Abu promises Alec he will get Black's first son.

My favorite scene is when Alec meets Tabari because she is very nice and talks to Alec. I also like it when Alec meets Abu's tribe because it is all new for Alec and he behaves very nicely even though he is impatient to see Black. My two favorite characters are Raj and Tabari. I like Raj because he shows independence and he is very nice and wishes he knew his family. He wants to help Alec and be friends with him. I like Tabari because she is nice, beautiful, shows lots of independence and makes her own decisions. I recommend this book to horse or animal lovers. I also recommend it for mystery lovers. I think people should read this because it is full of adventure, mystery, horses, and Alec's thoughts. It is a wonderful book. It makes you feel like you are in the book. I think all my friends should read this. It truly is an excellent book. I would rate this book a 10 because it shows a boy's love for a horse and how he struggles to get his horse back when it is taken from him. I think Walter Farley did a wonderful job writing it. I would also give this book a ten because it keeps you wondering what happens next. Walter Farley keeps you hanging on his every word.

The Black stallion is a wonderful book some parts are scary and some are sad. But in the end it all comes together in a wonderful horse mystery/adventure!

Wow! This book rocks! What happens is...
--the true owner of the black stallion shows up and TAKES THE BLACK BACK
--Alec and Henry find the black, but it is a very difficult journey and they first must travel across the Atlantic
--there is a big race that the black is to be in
--somewhere along the way, a vicious man attempts to KILL THE BLACK
This is not only a horse book, but a good vs. evil book. I highly recommend it.

After being awaken in the middle of the night, Alec finds out that someone was trying to kill his beloved horse. But why? When Abu Ishak appears and claims that the Black is his horse the next day, Alec is deeply suspicious. Alec, after Abu Ishak greets the Black, realizes that Abu is the Black's real owner. Soon the Black is back in Arabia, and Alec is lonely. He hatches a plan to see the Black, and try to get him back. Alec, Henry, and a weathly horse breeder depart to Arabia to find the Black and Abu Ishak. In the desert, not all is as it seems. Who was that infant found alone in the desert? Who stole the Black? Mystery and intrigue can be found between the pages.

I grew up with these books. Now at age 55 ... I now realize how this book taught a little girl to believe that different cultures are not to be feared.
How many 11 year olds in the suburbs of NYC could recite the Muezzins call to prayer, or know of the Bedouin's homeland the Nejd and their customs.
Am I the first to voice appreciation for this aspect of the early Black Stallion Books?
The bombastic humor and derisive portrayal of some of the Arab characters in the movie made from this book belie Mr. Farleys obvious respect for and knowledge of the Bedouin culture.
Horses and Humanity
Read and enjoy

Several years ago, my wife went to the library and checked out Walter Farley's The Black Stallion and its sequel The Black Stallion Returns for our older son Mark, who was then middle-school age, to read. At that time, I read The Black Stallion, in which a young boy named Alec Ramsay, who is returning from a visit to his uncle in India, and a mysterious Arabian horse which Alec calls the Black are the sole survivors of a shipwreck on an island off the coast of Portugal. Later, after the two are rescued, Alec trains the Black and the horse wins a very important race. However, I did not get to read the sequel. As The Black Stallion Returns opens, the Black is being housed in the stables of Alec's neighbor Henry Dailey, a horse trainer.
One night, someone tries to steal or kill the horse, but is scared away, dropping a gold neck chain with a medallion having a phoenix carved in ivory on it. Shortly after that, an Arabian sheik named Abu Ja'kub ben Ishak comes with all the necessary paperwork to claim the Black as his own and refusing to sell the horse at any price takes him back to Arabia. Not knowing this, Charles Volence, the owner of one of the horses which the Black had beaten, arrives to see if he can buy the horse. Volence invites Alec and Henry to go to Arabia with him to ask if Abu Ishak might change his mind about selling the Black or at least might be willing to sell him some of the horse's offspring. After landing in Arabia, they meet Ibn al Khaldun who has a medallion just like the one they found in the stable. On the way across the desert to Ishak's territory, their guide is killed and his assistants flee with all their supplies during a sand storm. Can they survive the desert? Do they make it to Ishak? And will Alec ever see his beloved Black again?
The Black Stallion is a good boy-and-his-horse story. But for sheer adventure and excitement, it is hard to beat The Black Stallion Returns. I really enjoyed reading the book. It would make good fictional reading to supplement a study of Arabia. Concerning language, some common euphemisms (primarily "gosh" and "gee") are found. Other than a few references to smoking tobacco and wagering on horse races, there is nothing else objectionable. Farley wrote some 21 books in "The Black Stallion" series, including Son of the Black Stallion, The Black Stallion and Satan, The Black Stallion's Ghost, The Black Stallion Revolts, The Black Stallion Mystery, The Island Stallion, The Island Stallion's Fury, The Black Stallion and Flame, and The Black Stallion Challenged. The final book, The Young Black Stallion, which is actually a "prequel," was co-written with Farley's son Steven.

Every bit as good as the first book in the series! Farley knows how to capture the reader's emotions, and he certainly knows how to write adventure!