A horse is a horse of course, unless of course the horse is Black Beauty. Animal-loving children have been devoted to Black Beauty throughout this century, and no doubt will continue through the next. Although Anna Sewell's classic paints a clear picture of turn-of-the-century London, its message is universal and timeless: animals will serve humans well if they are treated with consideration and kindness. Black Beauty tells the story of the horse's own long and varied life, from a well-born colt in a pleasant meadow to an elegant carriage horse for a gentleman to a painfully overworked cab horse. Throughout, Sewell rails--in a gentle, 19th-century manner--against animal maltreatment. Young readers will follow Black Beauty's fortunes, good and bad, with gentle masters as well as cruel. Children can easily make the leap from horse-human relationships to human-human relationships, and begin to understand how their own consideration of others may be a benefit to all. (Ages 9 to 12)
There are 112 pages in this book. This book was published 1995 by Penguin Books Ltd .
Anna Sewell (1820-78) was a British novelist. Black Beauty was her only published work.
This book contains the following story:
Black Beauty
When he comes of age, the horse Black Beauty is sold to a grand house to be a carriage horse. The groom, Joe, is kind but his masters are cruel. Every day Beauty and his fellow horse, Ginger, are shackled to the carriage with a tight bearing rein to keep their heads held high, and the two horses are whipped and generally mistreated. When Ginger misbehaves she is taken away. When Beauty smashes his knee he is sold to a London cabby. Pulling a cab through all the weather is hard work but Jerry is kind to Beauty and he is happy. Then Jerry is offered a job as groom by a customer and has to sell Beauty. His next master is harsh and cruel. But then Black Beauty is rescued by a horse doctor and at the doctors stables he discovers that the groom is none other than Joe. Beauty lives out the rest of his life in the doctors fields, happy and cared for.
This book features the following character:
Ginger
