Black Beauty
Written nearly a century and a half ago, this book was the first major animal story in children's literature, although the author had intended it for adults.
Anna Sewell had been crippled at a young age but could still drive a horse-drawn carriage. She often drove her father to the station to go to work and later picked him up to bring him home. During those times, she saw there was often inhumane treatment of horses and was inspired to write about it in order, as she said, "To induce kindness, sympathy, and an understanding treatment of horses." She spent the last seven years of her life writing her only novel, Black Beauty, told in first-person narration by Black Beauty himself.
As we all know, horses can't write or tell their life story. Therefore, as narrator, John Rayburn says he speaks as the horse, telling the story of the horse as you are invited to listen to the tale of a courageous animal.
And don't miss Rayburn's historic reenactment of four World Series Classics ... 1945 Cubs-Tigers, 1946 Cardinals-Red Sox, and 1956 Yankees-Brooklyn Dodgers.
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Anna Sewell (1820-1878) is a British novelist. Although she wrote a single book in her lifetime, Black Beauty (1877) has become one of the most beloved novels of all time. Due to an injury from a fall at 14 years old, Sewell became an invalid, and her resulting reliance on carriages led to her calling for the humane treatment of horses. Aside from her sole literary work, she assisted her mother in the editing of a series of popular children's books.
