Review (Book) - My Kingdom for a Horse [edited] by Betty Ann Schwartz

This is an anthology of poems [about horses] that I read as a requirement for one of the challenges in the Take Another Chance Reading Challenge. This book jumped out at me because of the beautiful title.

When I first went through this book, I didn't care for the illustrations. I really like bold, bright pictures (and I think kids tend to like these too). Reflecting on the book, though, I realize that the paper the artist used does give the images a dream-like appearance, which goes perfectly with the dreamy poems.

Most of the poems in this book were nice. They were all short and none were longer than a page (unless the picture took up a two-page spread). My favorite poem of the book was "The Unicorn" by William Jay Smith. My list of honorable mentions: "Equestrienne" by Rachel Field, "My Pony" by Ruth Feder, "Retired to Pasture" by Anita Wintz and the excerpt from "The Fly-Away Horse" by Eugene Field.

However, the book isn't perfect. I didn't like "Merry-Go-Round" by Mark Van Doren. I found the child in this poem selfish, and I don't think kids these days need to read anything that might even only subconciously promote selfishness. I also didn't understand the text alignment of "Tommy" by Tony Johnston. After reading "Giddy Up" by James Minor several times, I think I finally understand the text alignment, but there's only so many times you can read the words "giddy up".

This book wasn't outstanding, but it was good. If I was asked to recommend a short poetry book, I would put this on the list, as long as I remember it. I would definitely recommend suggesting this to horse lovers. I plan on recommending it to one of my younger teens and her sister who are obsessed with horses.

Amazon recommends this book for ages 9 - 12, but as I just said, I think this is a nice book for a horse and/or poetry fan of any age.

My Rating: