Home > Categories > Books > Kids - General > Horses of the Dawn #1: The Escape review
Get ready for a wild run in bestselling author Kathryn Lasky's brand-new middle grade animal fantasy series.
The horses are in danger. They were rounded up by the two-legs and forced onto a boat to cross the wide ocean. The journey went badly and the boat was deemed too heavy, so the two-legs forced the horses into the sea and sailed away, leaving the herd to die in the deep.
By a miracle, the horses survived and made it to land. All but one -- the ghost horse, the leader of the pack. Now it's up to her daughter, only a filly, to take charge of the terrified herd. Stranded in a new land, surrounded by two-legs, will the horses find a way to live safe and free?
Product reviews...
I really enjoyed Kathryn Lasky's Guardians of Ga'hoole series so when the chance to review her new series came up I was keen to take it. It's also the type of story my 12 year old niece likes so I knew I could pass the book on to her once I had read it.
The book is recommended for 8-12 year olds but after reading it I'm not sure its suited to 8 year olds I found some of it upsetting myself as an adult. There were a number of violent parts to the book- each though was needed as part of the story it just made it in my opinion not really suitable for 8 year olds.
The book was very enjoyable and was told from the perspective of the horses and the world from their eyes. The story is based around Estrella (a horse born aboard a ship) and her fellow horses as they are thrown overboard, in a bid to lose weight on the ship, and left to fend for themselves. The real adventure begins when they swim to the shore and set about trying to work out where to next.
It's clearly the first book in the series and sets it up to make you want to read more as it sets the scene and the characters up nicely. I'm really interested in seeing where to from here.
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