This next review is about a book called Son of Black Beauty by Phyllis Briggs.
Inspired by the story of Black Beauty, the bar for horse stories nowadays this book is a nice read, albeit maybe for younger kids. The story as shown in the title is about the son of the most famous horse in literature Black Beauty, a black horse by the name of Stardust. It’s a nice book but in no way comparable to the original. The writer is clearly influenced by Anna Sewell’s original book as the format of the book is the same, from the horse’s point of view and set in chapters starting at Stardust’s early years as a foal and going up to his years as an old horse-though the point of view is from the older Stardust looking back at his life. The main horse of Stardust is not as likeable of a horse as Black Beauty, both horses suffer difficult times but through it all Black Beauty is a kind and gentle horse whereas Stardust is angry particular in the later chapters-you find that you root for Black Beauty in that book more than you root for Stardust in this one.
The adventures of Stardust are not as interesting as Black Beauty’s although having said that his adventures as a counting horse in the circus are quite good and his relationship with his first owner, gypsy boy Andrea is nice. You do feel sorry for Stardust as some of the things he goes through are downright cruel particularly with the groom at his second home but unlike Black Beauty, Stardust becomes more bad tempered as the novel goes on. There are many similarites between Anna’s book and this one but Anna’s book is far superior in the story itself, this book just isn’t as interesting and will never live up to the original.
My Rating-2/5
My next review will be the final book in the uglies series-Extras.
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