You’ve always wanted to read a road movie starring a talking horse mixed with a “rags to riches” story? This is the book for you.
Topic:
Shasta has been brought up by an old fisherman in a southern land. One day a man visits them and Shasta, who is taking care of the man’s horse, discovers that the horse is able to speak and is named Bree. Bree and Shasta decide to run away together. Their aim: Narnia. On the way they meet Aravis who also is a runaway, since she didn’t want to get into an arranged marriage, and ally with her. On their way to Narnia they face different challenges such as a desert and Shasta being mistaken for Prince Corin of Archenland, a country next to Narnia.
Will they ever reach Narnia? If they do, will it be worth all the risks? Will Aravis, who doesn’t think much of Shasta when they first meet, change her mind about him? And why are Shasta and Prince Corin so alike?
My opinion:
Honestly, I get why this book was not made into a movie. I’m not saying it’s boring to read but I do think it would be boring to watch.
I don’t really know which age this book has been written for because the story is too simple as to be for young adults but also not quite fitting for children.
As, I think, I have already stated when writing about Harry Potter, in my opinion it’s annoying if words are written like they are said instead of how they are spelled, which happened for a person towards the end of the book.
It took me a long time to get into the story due to the fact that I didn’t have enough time to read often. Another problem I see is that you need to really engage in the story and just read on, otherwise you will lose interest soon (if you’re a bit like me).
If you like descriptions of beautiful landscapes, you will enjoy reading this book since these parts are one of the strengths of it.
All in all, it was a “standard book”, but I do think it would be a good introduction to “kind of fantasy” (don’t take this wrong there are no dragons in this book, but there are talking animals, “fauns”, centaurs and giants) as would be all three Narnia-books I have read so far.
However, I will say that I really am looking forward to the following books.
So far I have enjoyed “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe” the most, which irritated me since I didn’t like the movie that much (I’ve seen the movies before reading the books).
“The Horse and His Boy” receives 3 out of 5 points.
As I already mentioned, this is a bit difficult for me so I will just say you can read once your about 8 years old, but please don’t take my word for it.