Customer Reviews

The White Stallion

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

 

 

I look forward to reading this book every year because the children always love it so. It is a sweet, simple, and yet engrossing tale of a pioneer girl who was going out West with her family on a wagon train when they became separated. She had only her horse, Anna, for company. Anna is torn between her desire for freedom with a wild stallion and her loyalty to the girl.

"The White Stallion" is just right for 7-9 year olds who want something longer than a picture book but is still very easy to read. They will like learning a little about wagon trains and the love between a girl and her horse. It is well-written and illustrated, and I happily recommend it.

This is a brief , simple verson of the story with lovely illustrations.
It would be great for young children or anybody who loves the timeless legend of The White Stallion.

It is 1845 and three Connestoga wagons are moving west to start a new life. Four-year-old Gretchen is the youngest in her family; she's too hot inside the wagon, so her father straps her to the back of their faithful old mare, Anna, who trots patiently behind the wagon. Gretchen falls asleep with the gentle gait, but the mare is mesmerized by the sight, sound and smell of a passing white stallion. When Gretchen awakes--far from the wagons--she finds herself surrounded by a curiously aggressive herd of mares, nuzzling at the grain sacks which are also tied onto the mare's back. She needs to be rescued from horses' teeth, hunger, thirst and being lost!

Written in short sentences with simple vocabulary and widely spaced lines, this story is good for very young readers. Isadora's black and white illustrations enhance a child's enjoyment of the strange tale of Gretchen's ultimate rescue. Was it all a heat-induced dream, pure fiction on the part of the author, or does it deserve to take its place as a "true" family legend? Read it--or have it read to aloud--to judge for yourself!

I read this first when I was a little girl. I think I got it at a book fair. It was an absolute favorite, even until I was in my teens. My mom finally got rid of it when I left for the military. It's a sweet book that kept my imagination going for a very long time. I'm planning on getting it for my horse loving 10 year old for her birthday. It will be far below her reading level, but I think she'll enjoy it for years to come like I did.

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!

a wonderful book, when you read it you know it must be true because of it being so unusual. I wonder if anyone out there has any historical information on this horse, because somewhere I read about this amazing horse in history in the Nebraska, Utah early days, he was talked about by the oldtimers, almost mythical, the stories were passed around the territory, by native americans, settlers . thank you