War Horse (Book Review 3)
Michael Morpurgo
“War horse”,
a proud and original title. Plainly, it’s a book about a horse, and his journeys,
but it’s so much more than that. This book includes moments of anger,
happiness, and quite a bit of sadness. It’s also a book of adventure, betrayal,
and friendship. It’s also a book about keeping your old friends in your memory,
while making new memories with new friends.
The book starts off with the horse,
who doesn’t actually have a name yet, about six months old, and at an auction.
A horse in front of him was quickly auctioned off, and it was his turn to be
auctioned, so he and his owner stepped forward. Bids didn’t fly, but he was
sold pretty quickly. Just after the auction he got hauled off to a farm, and a
little while later, he was thrown into a stable while being called vulgar names.
Next thing this horse new, he was accompanied by a young boy, and an older
woman. “Mother,” the boy said. “That will be a wonderful and brave horse. Look
at how he holds his head.” Then, after a brief moment of silence, he says,
“Look at him, Mother. He’s wet through to the skin. I’ll have to rub him down.”
“But your father said to leave him
be, Albert,” said the boy’s mother. “Said it’ll do him good to be left alone.
He told you not to touch him.” Then the boy, Albert, says something incredibly
intelligent, even for his age of thirteen, “Mother, when Father’s drunk, he
doesn’t know what he’s saying or what he’s doing. He’s always drunk on market
days. You’ve told me often enough not to pay him any account when he’s like
that.” Then after an0other mement, “You feed old Zoey, Mother, while I see to
him. Oh, isn’t he grand Mother? He’s red almost, red bay you’d call him,
wouldn’t you say? And that cross down his nose is perfect. Have you ever seen
such a thing? I will ride this horse when he’s ready. I will ride him
everywhere, and there won’t be a horse to touch him, not in the whole parish,
not in this whole country.”
A little while later, Albert’s
mother left and Albert starts rubbing his new steed down. He then, begins
talking to him. “We’ll get along you and I. I will call you Joey only because
it rhymes with Zoey, and then maybe – yes, maybe – because it suits you,” and
so starts a glorious friendship. Over the next long winters and hot summers,
Albert and Joey grew up together.
Finally, after growing up a bit,
Joey starts working around the farm with old Zoey and Albert, but Joey starts
hearing rumors of a war. Then it hit, a war had actually broke out! Next, about
a week after Joey heard about the war, men in khaki uniforms came to the farm.
The captain jumped down from his steed and approached both Albert and his
father. They were talking about a price for something, and that something… was
Joey. After, a long argument on a price,
Albert says he wants to join the army, but alas, the captain said he was too
young. After a little more arguing, they sell Joey for forty pounds and a
promise that Joey will not come to any sort of harm. Now Joey is preparing to
become a war horse, but what he doesn’t know is, he will go through many
different families, and even fight for different sides in this war.
“War Horse” is a thrill ride that
takes place during the First World War and, just to be honest, it doesn’t seem
like a great book at first, but once I reached the start of the actual war, it
got quite interesting. However, this book isn’t for everyone. I’d only recommend
this book to people who like war books or those who like “exciting adventure”
books.
