Horse Power

March 1, 2021
An illustrated history presents the working horse-human relationship through the ages. With colorful illustrations drawn in a child-friendly style, the book intersperses double-page spreads, spot illustrations, and more than a few simplified maps showing small horse figures cavorting on continents to give an overall informative, if busy, look. Although a few dark-skinned, black-haired people are depicted, the majority of the humans illustrated have the same light beige skin color, including the buckskin-clad, black-haired youth astride an Appaloosa or the person garbed in desert robes riding an Arabian. The text--also visually lively as it intersperses callout boxes, sidebars, and ongoing narration--offers plenty of information that is, unfortunately, somewhat sanitized. Racehorses, for example, were and are often mistreated, and coal ponies certainly didn't have a great life hauling coal underground in mines, but these issues are glossed over quickly as the story resolutely develops its theme of the importance of the role of the everyday working horse. The backmatter presents a timeline and author's note, which do mention, more pointedly, the less-happy interactions of humans and horses (such as the 8 million horses killed in World War I), but the overall story would be far more balanced if these darker relationships had been included in the body of the story. (This book was reviewed digitally with 9.8-by-22.6-inch double-page spreads viewed at 24.8% of actual size.) This homage to the role of the everyday horse in advancing human culture leaves out how the horse feels about it. (Informational picture book. 8-12)

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April 1, 2021
Grades 3-6 *Starred Review* On the heels of Thermes' chronicling of New York City (Manhattan, 2019) comes another compelling and detailed look at history, this time the domestication of horses. The book opens with an overview of ancient horse ancestors, followed by an explanation of how the horse was one of the last animal species to be domesticated and an outline of its influence on travel, trade, and innovation across Eurasia. After describing the introduction of horses to the Americas by Spanish conquistadors, Thermes focuses on horses in U.S. history, including their use by Native Americans, European settlers, early farmers, and burgeoning urban dwellers. She also emphasizes how horses created jobs for humans, shaped our language, and helped the nation expand. Interspersed throughout the chronological narrative are double-page spreads with incredible horse facts, from equine anatomy to types of horses (including "night soil" horses used to remove human excrement from early cities!) to modern-day wild horse communities around the world. At the heart of this book, however, is map-illustrator Thermes' intricate and endearing artwork, which includes endpapers filled with horse breeds and numerous horse-related maps. Although cars made horses disappear from everyday life, she concludes with ways humans still enjoy a relationship with this magnificent animal. An author's note and time line provide even more details. An equine delight that encourages horseplay and admiration.

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