Seabiscuit the Wonder Horse by Meghan McCarthy

Seabiscuit the Wonder Horse by Meghan McCarthy

Rating: 4 stars

I'm trying my best to create a horse-crazy daughter...because I want to ride horses again myself!  I am not completely self-motivated here.  Horses saved me from those middle school years where a lot of girls crumble in the face of mean girls, changes in their body, hormone swings, and their first "boyfriends."  I poured myself into whatever horse I was leasing at the moment, practicing my braids and Dressage tests and making sure their stall was spic-and-span (though my room sure never was).

This book is a surprisingly exciting children's book, one based on the wonderful little wonder horse, Seabiscuit.  (If you've not read Laura Hillenbrand's book Seabiscuit: An American Legend you really should!)  She sets the pace quickly by explaining, in wonderfully simple and appropriate words, how the country was at a depressed spot.  "In the 1930s, times were tough.  There were long lines to get food.  People didn't have much and needed an escape."  In comes horse racing in general, and Seabiscuit in particular.  Seabiscuit was a big, ungraceful horse that was pretty unsuccessful until the right team assembled around him.  Then, as Seabiscuit gained confidence, calmness, and speed, he gained a huge following of fans who had "Seabiscuit-itis." 

"A hush fell over the crowd.  The horses twitched. 
The riders sat perfectly still."

Of course, no good story exists without a good villain.  In this book, it's the graceful, well-bred, and gorgeous War Admiral, whose success came easily.  Seabiscuit's owner challenged War Admiral to a race, and the two horses met.  Thousands came by train, by car, by boat.  "They were squished--crammed in like sardines--but that didn't matter."  The two horses walked out on the track and...then...they're off!  The horses race side-by-side briefly, and then Seabiscuit takes off and never looks back, leaving War Admiral four lengths behind him as he gallops across the finish line.

It's a great American story, and it is super fun to read aloud, especially if you don't have any adults listening to you and you pour yourself into the excitement of the words and the feelings.  Which you definitely should do, because then your kids will enjoy it all the more.  Lorelei and Ben now have races (around the dining room table, accompanied by our crazy weimaraner Guidry) where they pretend to be jockeys on Seabiscuit and War Admiral.  Of course, as the big sister, Lorelei is always the winner on Seabiscuit. 

I don't love the illustrations.  I think they are a bit goofy, and the plate-like eyes on the horses and people throw me off a bit.  But the story is what counts--and that is a winner.