Good Morning Sweet Friends :)
I pray today finds you all doing well, and I'm so thankful you've taken the time to drop on by The Preppy Book Princess today for another book review.
How's your week going so far? Mine's been a little crazy, but pretty good nonetheless.
Today's review is going to be for a middle grade title that I recently finished from a new to me author.
It ended up not being quite what I was expecting, and I hope you'll all keep reading down below to find out why that was.
Finding Black Beauty by Lou Kuenzler:
Source: Bought for Myself
Publisher: Scholastic
Publication Date: January 1st, 2016
Genre: Middle Grade/Classic Retelling
Synopsis:
Told from the point of view of a young girl who masquerades as a boy in order to become a groom, this is the other side of the classic horse story BLACK BEAUTY. Aspiring groom Jo comes to love Beauty and when they are separated she travels to London to find him - on the way solving the mystery of her long-lost mother. A sweeping tale of a young girl and her love for a horse, and the circumstances that divide them.
(synopsis from goodreads)
My Review:
I happened to stumble upon this one for a really great price when a bookstore I visited was going out of business. I'd never heard of it before, but as someone who is a huge fan of the original classic, I wanted to go ahead and give it a try. I want to preface my review by stating that I appreciated how the reader can easily feel the author's love for the original story as they go through this one, and that it was a wonderful idea for a story to look at the process that went on in the meantime before Joe and Beauty were reunited at the end of the classic novel.
However, this one ended up not being what I was expecting, and I had quite a hard time wanting to work my way through it. The story felt largely implausible, and didn't really make sense to me why Josie wanted to be a stable groom in the first place. A lot of the passages seemed to glam over a lot of the inconsistencies that would have made her plan practically impossible, and you definitely have to turn a blind eye to this fact to finish this title.
It also felt like a lot of the chapters weren't necessary, and were just filler to try and make the book longer than it needed to be. The middle part was particularly trying, and took me quite awhile to finish.
Josie was not a character that was easy to like, and I didn't think she showed much compassion to anyone else around her throughout the course of the story. While I get that she was a twelve year old girl going through hard times, she never really seemed to learn her lesson despite the circumstances.
Overall, I applaud the author for wanting to retell this beloved children's tale, but unfortunately this one ended up being a pass for me personally. If you or your children love horse stories, this may be one you want to give a try. If you're coming at it like I did as a fan of the original story, then just be forewarned you may have to suspend belief to make this one work for you.
Final Rating: 2.5/5
Thanks so much for reading guys! Have a great rest of your day :)
This is not a sponsored post. All thoughts and opinions are my own. The photo does not belong to me, and all rights to the respective owners.
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