Black Beauty (Signet Classic)

Rating:
Summary: Great young teenage book
Review: Anna Sewell's novel Black Beauty is a timeless classic for readers of all ages, but has a main demographic of females from the age 9 to 16.
The story takes place in 19th century England. IT follows the life and experience of a horse named Black Beauty. The horse is born on a farm and sold at the age of four. His first owner Squire Gordon is a great loving man. Black Beauty is treated with respect and dignity. The story follows the horse as he is then sold from owner to owner. He becomes neglected and abused by carriage owners. A loving and gentle man finally purchases Black Beauty. He cares about the horses and treats them well. Black Beauty is finally happy as a carriage horse when tragedy strikes. His owner is struck with illness and is forced to sell the horse. Black Beauty is sold to a poor owner and is neglected. He longs to go back home to squire Gordon's farm and live a happy life once again.

The book is uniquely enough from the horse's point of view. This helps children connect with the horse, and makes the book more interesting and easy to follow along with. The heart breaking tale of a horse's life that will readers leave on the edge of their seat wanting to keep reading, dying to find out what happens next. The book goes into detail about how animal abuse used to be in the early 1900's. Older children have and will continue to enjoy this book for generations to come.

Rating:
Summary: I didnt like this audio book
Review: Black Beauty is a great book about a horse and his life. from good masters to bad, happy moments to sad, this book tells it all. I couldn't stop reading it!!! This is a fantastic book that all horse lovers will like.

Rating:
Summary: A fantastic book for all
Review: BLACK BEAUTY is a stimulating, gripping novel with lots of suspense and joy. This classic could be placed in the category of one of the most thrilling and adventurous books of all time. The author Anne Sewell, who has so much compassion towards horses, shows in this novel how cruel men can be towards them or on the other hand how people can understand horses and treat them well.

After his birth, Black Beauty learned how to be a fine horse and to do his work properly. At a certain age, like all horses, he was sold. With sadness he left his mother and his first master, but he knew it was time for him to go to work. With his mother's advice "Do your work with a good will and lift your feet up well when you trot" he walked off with his new master. This was his second of many.

Over the years Black Beauty endured mean masters as well as good ones, but he never failed. He kept beautiful souvenirs in his mind while he grew up and grew stronger. Black Beauty became a handsome black horse.

One day, during his stay with his second master, the grange where Black Beauty and the other horses lived caught fire. Huge flames roared through the grange threatening all of the horses. Will Back Beauty survive the flames, all of those harsh, cruel, severe owners and all the hard work? Will he, one day, go back to his first home and be reunited with all his friends?

This book is suitable for children of ages 9 to 12 and even adults could read and enjoy it. Since I just finished reading the book, for me, Anne Sewell is the author of the year 2005.


Rating:
Summary: Incredible
Review: I first read this book a long time ago - frankly, I don't remember when. It has been several years since then, but it touched me all the same. Currently, I am in the process of re-reading it. That's how good it is! You will want to read it over and over.

It begins with Black Beauty as a young colt, born into a good bloodline with racing blood running through his veins. His master was a good one and made sure that the horse became an obedient, noble steed. Unlike many other horses, he was broken in gently to insure years of the loyal service of a beautiful animal.

Unfortunately, Black Beauty's life is not all good; like any other horse, he came into the hands of both kind, cold, and simply ignorant masters. Though fiction, it really could've been any horse that went through the life of Black Beauty, and some probably did. At least, horses lived the lives of some in the book, such as those abused or beaten for doing things natural to a horse.

This novel was most definately touching and inspiring. It presented several important moral issues. A few include always doing your best, how to NOT "look out for number one,". and thoughts on how kindness can change a horse... and a person too.

Of course, I am somewhat biased, being a Horse in the Chinese Zodiac and a special fan of stories about horses, but all the same - I have taken many of the themes in this book to heart, and truly believe that the world might be a bit nicer if a few others picked up this classic tale of a horse's journey though the harsh reality of life.

Read it once! If you don't like it, then that's understandable, I guess.

But chances are, you'll love it.

And then you'll want to read it again.

Rating:
Summary: Black Beauty
Review: I read this book when I was very small, and found the description and the livelyness of the charecters amazing. Its hard to believe its nearly a hundred years old! Anna Sewell was an excellent writer, who is my inspiration. She uses imagery and personification so well to get her (very valid) point across, in a wonderfully encapsualting way.
Black Beauty is a kind, gentle and well-mannered horse who struggles in the harsh victorian world. This book has made me cry many a time, out of despair and sorrow for the charecters, and at the loveleyness of all the horses and some of the human charecters. It shows the way Victorians lived, and treated their animals and teaches us a lot of very important lessons. A must read for anyone, of any age.

Rating:
Summary: A lot to offer from a "childrens" book
Review: My wife and I just finished reading this to our children (four and five years old) and they loved it. Although it is thought of as a childrens book, it has a lot of things to offer. One of the quotes that grabbed my attention was the one where Sewell wrote, "Not knowing the right thing to do often does more harm in this world than wickedness itself." It is little gems like this that make this a worthwhile read for both a parent and child. Sewell no doubt understood a lot about life that she, thankfully, left behind for others to discover in her one and only book. My wife and I are finding there is a lot to learn from all of the books that were not part of either of our childhoods. I am grateful to be able to able to be learning about them now, and to be able to share them with our children.

This book is easy to read, not too long, and easy for little ones to follow along with. It also has a lot of little gems in it that are there if you pay attention to them. Although it is a story about horses that children will most likely love, there is a lot for the adult reader to gain by reading it, too.



Rating:
Summary: I didnt like this audio book
Review: The reason I dint like this book was because I think that they should have had more exhiting moments in the book and that they shouldnt have just kept on selling the horse as it got older and in the worst conditions, it was abused and tortured with the many familys it went through. Even though this wasnt a good book for me, just because horses arnt my favorite animals doesnt mean people that love horses shouldnt read this book.

Rating:
Summary: A Memorable Children's Novel with Important Values
Review: We often talk about teaching children values, but in most cases children's literature is insipid and of no lasting value. BLACK BEAUTY, however, is both valuable as art and valuable for the virtues it teaches: kindness, common sense, and helping those who cannot help themselves. The book is well written in clean prose. It does not over reach the "reading child," nor does it talk down to him. And although it is touching and occasionally sad, it is not in the least sentimental.

The story, of course, is about Black Beauty, a handsome horse who is born and raised in happy circumstances. But in Victorian England horses were used much as we use cars today: they were things to be bought and sold and then gotten rid of when they were no longer useful. Black Beauty is first sold to a good home, but as time passes he is sold again and again--and not always to people who treat him kindly or even to those who give him common care.

There are adventures aplenty, like a stable fire and a dangerous bridge; there are many memorable characters, like the horse Ginger and the kind cabbie Jerry. All of them are seen from Black Beauty's point of view, and beautifully, perfectly described. My mother read this book to me, and as soon as I could I was anxious to read it myself; now, some thirty years later I have stumbled once more upon it. And I can honestly say that it lives up to my memory: it is a fine book, and one that every parent should place in the hands of their children. Strongly recommended.

GFT, Amazon Reviewer

Rating:
Summary: A must-read for every animal-loving little girl
Review: What girlhood would be complete without reading this tearjerker classic? As a child, there wasn't much I loved more than books, horses and a good cry -- and this provided all three.

For those of you who don't know the story, Black Beauty is horse in England during the 19th century. He begins life with a loving master, but due to circumstances is sold several times -- to owners both kind and cruel.

Sewell, a Quaker woman, wrote this book (first published in 1877) to enlighten the public. Horses at the time were often beaten, starved and overloaded. Sewell's book, however, became a catalyst for change and ushered in a new way of thinking about the treatment of animals.