Very Nice
Disclaimer: ARC via Netgalley.
A couple years the Smithsonian Museum of the American Indian had an exhibit entitled A Song for the Horse Nation. The purpose was to showcase the influence of horses on Native American history and culture. It was a really good exhibit and the reason why I read this book that was offered on Netgalley via a read it now option.
Goble’s story is of a young boy who wants to become a young man. This is done by taking another tribe’s horse, something done at night. The story concerns men, and is simply a telling of age story that involves native culture. The pictures are marvelous;
The story itself is told pretty well, if sometimes with chunks of too much text. It almost is as if the book can’t decide what it wants to be – a child’s level reader or something higher.
That aside, it is an excellent book with the romanticizing being in the introduction. There is a line about horse getting being not the same as stealing. It seems more like a defensive semantic difference than anything else. It is important to note the cultural importance of the act – the honor in the claiming of horses - but the comment feels very out of place and almost defensive. Perhaps this is fear due to the subject matter. It just seemed silly however. Like having a disclaimer before a Robin Hood story.
Still, strange line in the foreword aside, the book is really and beautifully illustrated.
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