Entries Categorized as 'All Ages'
Posted by Rebekah
Categories: All Ages, Fiction, Review
Tags:Animals, Dogs, Jim Kjelgaard
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Sean, one of Big Red’s sons, is a perfect show dog, but everything in him yearns to be free and wild. An accident frees him and throws him (literally) into a northern wilderness. Forced to fend for himself, Sean relies on his instincts and wits in everything, from finding food, to avoiding the half-coyote-half-dog, Slasher.
Definitely a dog story. Complete with wanting an owner to love and be loved by. I wasn’t very thrilled, but I did read it in snatches throughout the day. Each person likes a different type of book. It does have kind of an abrupt ending. Rather disappointing since Sean gets shot. . . just kidding! Well, he does get shot at one point in the book, but (like Lassie!), it’s not much of a problem.
Posted by Ruth
Categories: All Ages, Fiction, Review
Tags:Animals, Horses, The Island Stallion, Walter Farley
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Steve Duncan and his good friend Pitch have returned to their secret hideout on the uninhabited island of Azul. Pitch hopes to continue exploring and documenting the many tunnels of the island, while Steve can’t wait to be reunited with Flame, a wild stallion he befriended, who is the leader of a beautiful band of wild horses. But the trouble begins when Pitch’s step-brother, Tom, discovers their island paradise. Holding them as prisoners, Tom determines to tame Steve’s beloved horse, Flame, by force alone.
I didn’t like this one as much as some of Walter Farley’s other books, and it might not be entirely suitable for younger readers. I found the part where Tom is beating Flame with a whip over, and over, and over to be a bit sickening. However, the rest of it is pretty good.
Posted by Rebekah
Categories: All Ages, Fiction, Review
Tags:Animals, Horses, The Black Stallion, The Island Stallion, Walter Farley
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On their way back from Europe, Alec and Henry’s plane goes down. Using a life raft, Henry, Alec and the crew make it out safely. The only problem? The Black and several other horses were on the plane with them. As Alec drifts about in the raft, his only comfort is that Henry saw the horses leaving the plane before it went down. Once the life boat reaches the island of Antago in the West Indies, Alec and Henry devote their time to finding the Black, before it could be too late.
This is a fun book. The only problem is the vampire bat. (Excuse me a moment while I go shiver.) The bat is infected with rabies, and plays a large part in the story line. As a heads-up, there are a few evolutionary statements about the bat. If you ever feel queasy about the bat, whatever you do, just keep breathing, it turns out okay in the end. I find it interesting how Walter Farley brought together his two most famous horses and manages to never say which horse is better. There are some tense moments, and, on the whole, this book is fun.
Posted by Rebekah
Categories: All Ages, Fiction, Review
Tags:Animals, Horses, The Black Stallion, Walter Farley
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This book opens dramatically when someone tries to kill the Black, then, while Henry and Alec are still trying to figure out who would want to kill the Black, Abu Já Kub ben Ishak arrives and proves that he is the owner of the Black, finally taking the Black to his home in Arabia. Alec, separated from the Black for what seems to be forever, jumps at the chance to travel to Arabia, in the hope of seeing the Black one last time.
This is the second book in the Black Stallion series. These books are not long reads, in fact, at one point when I was first reading them, I actually read six of them in one day. (Of course, I didn’t have anything else to do.) I enjoy them, and The Black Stallion Returns is very fun. It’s tense in some places, thrilling in others, and yes, occasionally predictable. (But is there a problem with that? At least it’s not “form-written”!) There is some violence. I take that back. There is quite a bit of violence, but it’s not told in a gross way at all. It has almost everything. A great horse (obviously), a really bad badguy, life or death situations. It even has an old feud! A great sequel to a great book.
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