If I Was a Horse
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- $16.99
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- $16.99
Publisher Description
SHORTLISTED FOR THE CBCA PICTURE BOOK OF THE YEAR 2024
SHORTLISTED FOR THE ABIA CHILDREN'S PICTURE BOOK OF THE YEAR AWARD 2024
WINNER OF THE BOOKPEOPLE CHILDREN'S BOOK OF THE YEAR AWARD 2024
If I was a horse, I would gallop all day.
I could go anywhere I want . . .
If you were a horse, what would you do? Could you fit in your clothes? Would you give your little sister a ride? Would your brother even notice?
Gallop along with two-time Caldecott Medallist Sophie Blackall through this riotous day in the life of a child who imagines their life as a horse. Sophie's delightful text and resonant illustrations that feature a giant horse in familiar settings offer a visual feast, a grand dose of joy and a celebration of the real power of imagination to help us navigate the world.
'This is truly a book that will be treasured by any child who loves horses . . . Absolutely gorgeous and brilliant fun for ages 2+' READINGS
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In an amusing meditation on self-determination, a young narrator imagines being free of the rules of childhood and family life—by dint of becoming a horse. Caldecott Medalist Blackall begins, "If I was a horse, I would gallop all day.// I could go anywhere I want,// and I'd come home when I was hungry." One accompanying spread shows a bay horse with a spray of white spots across its back entering a kitchen and grazing on a sandwich. A younger sibling giggles; an older sibling, absorbed in a book, notices nothing. The speaker describes giving their sister a ride to school (halting just shy of the entrance to munch flowers); swimming, goggle-clad, in a race ("Everyone/ would want me on their team"); and looking skeptically at a caregiver proffering both a bath and garments ("If I was a horse, I wouldn't wear clothes"). After bedtime, the real voice behind the words is revealed. Throughout this cozy view of longed-for freedoms in childhood, Blackall's signature-style illustrations summon giggles about the comic ill-suitedness of horses to the human-scale world. Characters are portrayed with various skin tones. Ages 4–8.
