King of the Wind

Henry, M., & Dennis, W. (1948). King of the Wind. Chicago: Rand McNally.

 

This book tells the imagined life story of the Godolphin Arabian, one of the founding sires of the modern Thoroughbred breed of horses.  I grew up in a horse ranching family, and remember my grandmother telling me that you always have to cross-breed back with Arabians to improve a line.  I had read this book as a child, and liked it, but reading it as an adult I found it lacking.  I kept thinking, "Where is this information coming from?" and "Yeah, right.".  I remember reading a large hardback with beautiful illustrations as a child, but found a paperback with black and white drawings, which is nowhere near as impressive.  I think this book is a lot like Black Beauty in that it tells the tale of one horse through several owners and adventures, but because it's a horse who really existed, I think that the author could have done a bit more research and included more factual evidence.  I will give her some leeway because I loved her books growing up, and research was a bit harder to do in 1948.  There will always be girls who love to read as much as they love horses, and those girls will probably always love this book.