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A review by rsw_bazillionbooks
King of the Wind: The Story of the Godolphin Arabian by Marguerite Henry
4.0
I loved Marguerite Henry's books as a child but being the incomplete-ist and slow reader that I've always been, I read just a few of her titles and moved on to other things.
I enjoyed reading this one now for the first time. It was penned in1948 and as a "grown-up" now, I wonder how I would have perceived it had I read it when I was the target age for it in the 60s. I was struck by the fact that the main human character was a mute boy. An interesting choice for an author. Not that it was a book without dialog but that none of the dialog involved this main character. What I found sort of funny about my Reader response to the story was that I kept thinking it was kind of like the corny death in the movies where the hero takes forever to die. There were so many ups and downs! But YES it was a good book. And it won the Newbery Medal in 1949.
I took a look at the list of Newbery winners since the award started in 1922. It's amazing how often the books from the early years are titles I've never heard of but usually, even if I'd not heard of the winner, one of the finalists would have become a well-loved children's book in the intervening years. So, sometimes, it seems the grown-ups maybe chose one book while readers chose their "People's Favorite". Two of Marguerite Henry's other titles made it to the Newbery Finalists list: Misty of Chincoteague and Justin Morgan had a Horse. One of which I KNOW I read!
I enjoyed reading this one now for the first time. It was penned in1948 and as a "grown-up" now, I wonder how I would have perceived it had I read it when I was the target age for it in the 60s. I was struck by the fact that the main human character was a mute boy. An interesting choice for an author. Not that it was a book without dialog but that none of the dialog involved this main character. What I found sort of funny about my Reader response to the story was that I kept thinking it was kind of like the corny death in the movies where the hero takes forever to die. There were so many ups and downs! But YES it was a good book. And it won the Newbery Medal in 1949.
I took a look at the list of Newbery winners since the award started in 1922. It's amazing how often the books from the early years are titles I've never heard of but usually, even if I'd not heard of the winner, one of the finalists would have become a well-loved children's book in the intervening years. So, sometimes, it seems the grown-ups maybe chose one book while readers chose their "People's Favorite". Two of Marguerite Henry's other titles made it to the Newbery Finalists list: Misty of Chincoteague and Justin Morgan had a Horse. One of which I KNOW I read!