Amazon.co.uk Review
A horse is a horse of course, unless of course the horse is Black Beauty. Animal-loving children have been devoted to Black Beauty throughout this century, and no doubt will continue through the next. Although Anna Sewell's classic paints a clear picture of turn-of-the-century London, its message is universal and timeless: animals will serve humans well if they are treated with consideration and kindness.
Black Beauty tells the story of the horse's own long and varied life, from a well-born colt in a pleasant meadow to an elegant carriage horse for a gentleman to a painfully overworked cab horse. Throughout, Sewell rails--in a gentle, 19th-century manner--against animal maltreatment. Young readers will follow Black Beauty's fortunes, good and bad, with gentle masters as well as cruel. Children can easily make the leap from horse-human relationships to human-human relationships, and begin to understand how their own consideration of others may be a benefit to all. (Ages 9 to 12)
Review
Never before has this favorite been so handsomely, and appropriately, illustrated. Keeping (d. 1988), a master draftsman who illustrated 300 books, including all of Dickens, has provided a bountiful number of drawings (some subtly touched with color), combining piercing caricature, compassion, and a sure eye for the horses' beauty, movement, and (at the worst of times) plight. A masterpiece of illustration, capturing the book's drama and period while rising nobly above its sentimentality. (Kirkus Reviews)
