King of the Wind

King of the Wind was a 1948 Newberry Award winning book and was written by Marguerite Henery. The book is about a horseboy and the horse he was assigned to. The king of the land wanted to give a gift of several nobel horses along with their horseboys as a gift of friendship. The horses and the boys were shipped across the sea. When they arrived to the intended recipient, the horses were no longer in the stellar shape they were in when they left their native land. The recieving king was not impressed and ordered them to be sold. The story follows one horse and its journey through the land. The horse was sold to many people in the land. Some were nice, some where simple, and some where out right foul. Through it all, the horseboy stayed with his horse. His king sent him with the horse and charged him to stay with the horse until the horse died. In the end, the horse did mate with a nobel horse of the new land and began a lineage of fast, healthy, and strong horses in the new country. The lineage of horses were fast runners. They often won their races and brought pride to the new country. However, this story is about the first horse that began the lineage, the horse called, "The King of the Wind".

MY TWO CENTS WORTH:
First of all, I have to admit publically that I earned a 70% on the AR quiz. I'm not sure why I didn't ace this quiz. I enjoyed this Newberry book tremendously, stories about horses bring back pleasant childhood memories, and the dumb (unable to speak) character entreaged me right from the begining. If I could blame anything, I guess I'd blame it on three things: 1) I'm a slow reader and forget just about everything I read...immediately, 2) there were a lot of teir three vocabulary words, and 3) my new job has me mentally preoccupied.

I am really getting a kick out of reading the Newberry award winning books from 1922 to present. Thus far 95% of the books have been an enjoyable read. As I read these books, I have found myself recommending them to friends, colleagues, and students. I have discovered that the titles of many of these books spring from my mouth throughout our conversations. If you are a person who enjoys horses, particularly race horses, this book may give you a beautiful story behind the lineage of an excellent line of race horses. I have been lead to believe that this story was, in part, based upon a real event. In fact, the King of the Wind has its own grave site that people can still visit today. If I'm in the area, I just might visit it and place the picture on my blog. :)