The Finest Horse in Town [Hardcover]

Jacqueline Briggs Martin (Author), Susan Gaber (Illustrator)

Book Description

Age Level: 3 and up

Long before my mother was born, her aunts owned a store in a small village in Maine. They had a smart gray horse who pulled a shiny black buggy when they went out riding.

Prince was the finest horse in town. But no one remembers who took care of that beautiful animal while the aunts were working in their store: perhaps it was a sneaky trader who tried to steal him, perhaps it was a one-legged harmonica player who taught him to dance; perhaps it was two children who once saved Prince's life.

Jacqueline Briggs Martin really did have two great-aunts who owned a horse like Prince. In THE FINEST HORSE IN TOWN she recreates life in a small American town as it might have been at the turn of the 20th century. Susan Gaber's extraordinary watercolor paintings make the people and events in these three stories truly come alive.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This tale of two sisters who run a dry-goods store in horse-and-buggy-era Maine is based on the long-lost family story of Martin's two great-aunts. The author of the Bizzy Bones books has spun a gossamer prose poem of unaffected sweetness, told as a series of vignettes that speculate on who might have tended the sisters' magnificent horse, Prince, while the two women were minding the store. Could it have been an unscrupulous horse trader, who almost duped the sisters out of their prize stallion? Or was it a one-legged logger, who taught Prince to dance to the strains of a harmonica? As Martin points out in her wistful refrain, "An old watchmaker told us / what he remembered. / And he was there." Remembered only in fragments, the story is essentially a slender one; but the beauty of its nostalgic, sing-song language and descriptions of village life more than compensate for its lack of substance. Gaber's ( The Woman Who Flummoxed the Fairies ) exquisite watercolors have the naive beauty of early American folk paintings. Ages 5-10.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From School Library Journal

Kindergarten-Grade 3-- A fictionalized memoir in which Martin reminisces about her great aunts. Nineteenth-century Americana permeates three ``could-have-happened'' stories of Stella and Cora's carriage horse, Prince. As told by an old watchmaker, the anecdotes about the exemplary animal will amuse readers. Prince is disguised by a horse trader, taught to dance by a jokester, and nursed by his young caretakers. The somewhat two-dimensional, full-color paintings illustrate the mild humor of the incidents and capture the essence of small-town concerns. The book could stimulate similar family remembrances and oral histories. --Charlene Strickland, formerly at Albuquerque Public Library , NM
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 3 and up
  
• Hardcover: 32 pages
• Publisher: Purple House Press (September 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1930900279
• ISBN-13: 978-1930900271
• Product Dimensions: 10.5 x 8.2 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.9 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,089,107 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Jacqueline Briggs Martin is the author of Snowflake Bentley, winner of the 1999 Caldecott Medal. She grew up on a farm in Maine and now she lives in Mt. Vernon, Iowa.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars FIAR CLASSIC, November 28, 2011

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sarahbyu1 (USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Finest Horse in Town (Hardcover)

This is a great book, that we used for FIAR. All of my children enjoy it and there are plenty of activities listed on the internet for you to do along with reading it.