The Girl Who Loved Wild Horses

by Paul Goble

Book Overview

A Plains Indian girl is lost in the mountains during a storm. A wild stallion becomes her friend and she decides to ride free with the herd even after she is found. . . . Storytelling and art express the harmony with and the love of nature which characterize Native American culture.--The Horn Book. Caldecott Medal; ALA Notable Children's Book. Full-color illustrations.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0689710828
• ISBN13: 9780689710827
• Release Date: October 1986
• Publisher: Aladdin Paperbacks
• Length: 32 Pages
• Weight: 0.20 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.1" x 6.8" x 9.0"
• Age Range: 4 to 8 years
• Grade Range: Kindergarten to Grade 3

Customer Reviews

Book not in good condition. Book sleeve torn in half.

It is a great story book. However, it was not in good condition as advertised.

Book was not in good condition.

I like to order books to expand my library and help others out but labeling a book as good condition and then leaving the sticker on from where they bought it for $1.50 and selling it for $5 just seems wrong to me. The cover was ripped on both the front and the back. No note about that in the description. I'm very disappointed in this purchase.

Any story shared and illustrated by Paul Goble is a treasure.

Such a wonderful story with exquisite illustrations. Paul Goble may be a Caucasian man but he carries forth the stories from direct learning from living in community in the Black Hills of SD with the Lakota. His deep reverence really shines through.

Not a Native Author

I wish I'd done more research before buying this book. It's beautiful but the fact that it's written by a British man who built his career off of writing Native stories makes me feel icky. I won't be keeping this one.

A book you'll be grateful you read

This book is for more than just children. With a mix of fictional story and history, "The Girl who Loved Wild Horses" is a must for any nostalgic bookshelf. The illustrations are amazing, and flow wonderfully with the story. Pick it up and share with the kids or just experience it for yourself.

The ultimate dream for a girl who loves horses

"The Girl Who Loved Wild Horses" won the Caldecott Award in 1978, the most prestigious award for children's illustrated books. As a children's librarian, I am always curious when I first open a Caldecott winner to see if I can readily identify why the book won the award. Paul Goble is certainly an artist who sees beauty. He sets his story in the days of the Native American ascendancy on the plains. He renders nature in plentitude and colors the most beautiful black I have ever seen. In this Native American fairy tale a horrible black storm sweeps across the plains, frightening the horses into a stampede, carrying the older girl with them. She is what we would now call a horse whisperer. In the night scene Goble depicts the black of the sky with stars and moon and the black of the high mountains in two shades of black. The horses, outlined in white against the mountains, look like gouache. The scene is stunning. Goble goes on to have the girl meet a spotted wild stallion, who accepts her and the horses into his herd. By the end of this lovely fantasy, she has become a horse and the stallion's mate. The verdant flowers and rocks and pairings of five sets of animals match the horse pairing. It could happen in a fairy tale. This story would appeal to any child with a strong artistic sense. Goble paints so much into his story that the visual story can almost stand alone. I know children who would love to "find" all the extras included in the scenery. The artwork is truly extraordinary. This book is highly recommended for ages 5 and up.

Wild Horses actually do drag this young girl away

"The Girl Who Loved Wild Horses" is a straightforward tale of the Plains Indians, retold and illustrated by Paul Goble, unlike those that he has told about the trickster, Iktomi. This myth does not folllow any one story exactly but is put together from a great number of stories belonging to the peoples who lived on the Great Plains that Goble had read or listened to over the years. This story is premised on the importance of horses to these peoples. The title character is a girl in the village would loved horses so much that she would led them to drink at the river and when she spoke softly to them they would follow her. Her people recognized that she understood horses in a special way, which explains why this story ends the way that it does.Every day after doing her chores the young girl would run off to be with the horses. One day there is a great lightning storm that drives the horses, carrying the young girl, over the horizon to a land she had never seen before. There she finds a beautiful spotted stallion, stronger and prouder and more handsome than any horse she had ever dreamed of. He is the leader of all the wild horses who roamed the hills and he welcome her to live with them. But a year later two hunters from her people discover her in the hills where the wild horses lived and they will try to bring the girl back to her parents. The question is whether the girl can be happy back with her people now that she has lived with the wild horses.Goble's distinctive artwork, which recalls the art of the Plains Indians of the 19th century, is particularly well suited to this simple tale. As was the case in one of his earlier books, "The Gift of the Sacred Dog," which told how the first horses came into the lives of the people, you can tell that Goble likes to draw horses. In "The Girl Who Loves Wild Horses" he has ample opportunity to draw dozens of them, as well as the young girl decked out in her colorful garb, and I particularly liked the plant life he draws this time around. No wonder this book was the winner of the Caldecott Medal.

Beautiful art.

Paul Goble transcends perfection. Any artist, or anyone who loves art, will want to look at this book again and again...Simon & Schuster recommends the book for ages 5 to 8, but any child approaching or in his or her early teens would be enchanted by the simplicity of the artwork and the way it so powerfully conveys the story the words tell. Even adults will enjoy this poetic picture book.

A Good Book to Talk About

My daughter is horse crazy right now. That's what initially led me to this title. However, and fortunately, it turns out that the book is a wonderfully illustrated Native American tale, complete with a bit of magical realism. Thus the title of this review. We talked about what happened to the girl and why the tale goes the way it does. The story is about a young Native American girl who falls in love with a herd of wild horse. She manages to join the herd and live with them for quite a while. (To say more would ruin the tale.)My 7 year-old can read it unaided, but it does have more text per page than most early reading books. Though the story is about a girl, I don't think the tale is all that gendered, and boys should find it equally interesting. A good lead in to this sort of fiction is the much easier picture book, Storm Boy, by Paul Owen Lewis [....] That is a magnificently illustrated tale from the Northwest, drenched in magical realism. In fact, we still read that book periodically; it's so enchanting.

The Girl Who Loved Wild Horses

This is considered a children's book, and I haven't the foggiest idea why. This book has everything going for it--art, history, memorable characters, a tear-jerker ending and a just plain good story. This is arguably the most famous of Paul Goble's books--he has a whole series of Native American "children's books" and it has deservedly won awards. You--yes you--will spend a happy long time trying to find everything in Goble's intricate landscapes in each and every one of his illustrations. This book is my fantasy come to life. This isn't just a book--it's something to save from a fire. Unfortunately, I couldn't save it from my guinea pig Muffin, who ate the spine, but that's another topic