Published: 1958
So I thought that I would start off my reading blog on a positive note, an old classic, and a book that brings me back…wayyy back! In fact, I knew first of the film, when I was just 5 years old I used to watch the film and play along to it with my toy horses. Yes, I was such a cool child!
I was immediately attracted to the “real” portrayal of the horses in the wild, Australian bush. At this point in my life I was living in Slovakia so I literally couldn’t be farther from the place, but for some reason it felt so familiar.
Imagine my delight, when I realised a few years later, thanks to some research in my local library, that there was actually a book that the filmed was based on. And I have to say the book was AMAZING! I devoured the book when I was a child, enthralled with the wilderness that the author, Elyne Mitchell, described and captivated by the story of the silver brumby. I also loved the realness, this wasn’t any silly My Little Pony tale and neither did it have the teen drama that say the Saddle Club series had. It was just about free and wild horses versus man.
I’m delighted to say that many decades after I read the book, nothing has changed. The magic still remains. It’s not a complex book by any means, and it’s very short compared to a lot of the books I’ve been reading but it’s got substance without having to even try. The main theme is nature versus the man, and that couldn’t be more relevant in todays age.
The story is about a wild, silver stallion that lives in the wild Australian bush. Early on we discover that “he would be hunted…by man, since they were so strange looking in the wild herds” (14) and also he would be badgered by other stallions on the mountains as well, due to his colour. We follow his life as he develops and learns the tricks from his mother of how to remain invisible and be like a ghost of the mountains.
The plot is simple and rather predictable, but it’s hard not to fall in love with Thowra, the name of the silver brumby, and other mountain range that he resides in. By the end of the book you can’t help but shed tears against the selfishness and evil of mankind.
friendlybookworm 