Blackface Stallion

Inspired by her child's request for her to write a story about horses and ONLY horses, Helen Griffiths delivered a remarkably realistic tale about the increasingly few remaining wild mustangs and their struggle for survival over generations in a harsh, desert environment. Griffiths managed to make a story about these wild animals going about their lives, searching for food and water, traveling long distances, battling the harsh elements of heat and cold, and fighting over territory and mates, fully engaging and intriguing without anthropomorphizing the characters. They do not talk or otherwise behave like humans. This isn't a "Bambi"-like story of survival. And yet we are still able to feel for the horses as characters, identify with their struggles, and be moved by their tragedies and triumphs as they go about their lives. This is the book's strongest asset. Griffiths emphasizes the brutally harsh lives the mustangs live by introducing us to their world through a domesticated golden mare who becomes stranded in the desert and ends up joining a wild herd to survive. Completely out of her element and not knowing how to take care of herself without human help, she must adapt and learn how to be part of the wild herd, and so we learn how mustangs live along with her. But it is through her foal, the titular Blackface, that we go on to discover the journey of a wild foal to adulthood (something that doesn't often happen in the wild), and thus we see the workings of a mustang herd from both the view of the lowliest mare and that of a young colt determined to become a dominant stallion with a herd of his own. The book is not watered-down or written babyishly. I first read it in 3rd grade, but it was full of vocabulary I did not fully understand then. It is written maturely and I'm sure people of all ages can appreciate it. There are somewhat graphic descriptions of the harsh experiences these mustangs must go through to survive: violent clashes over territory and mates, a mare going through labor for the first time, hierarchy challenges between the mares of the herds, and tragic, frightening encounters with men who do not want the mustangs trespassing on their land. This is a wonderful introduction to horses and mustangs for people of any age. I certainly learned a lot from this book as a child, and absorbed it all over the many, many rereadings that this engaging story demanded. And it is also an awakening to the struggles of wild animals today, trying to survive in the last few areas not dominated by man. Will wild mustangs survive or will they soon become a memory, their domestic siblings the only remaining vestige of their past glory? By the end of Blackface Stallion, you will begin to ask yourselves questions like this, as the tale brings awareness of the reality of their plight, but always with a glimpse of hope.