Literary Coffee

This book is written from the point of view of a horse named Joey.  At first I thought that this book was going to be a little silly reading the thoughts of a horse but this book is wonderful.   We start from when he was brought to live on a farm and he meets Albert, the farmer’s son. Soon he is sold to the army, (WWI)and he sees the horrors of war.  Poor Joey goes through so much in this book and you as the reader become so invested in his life and those that became part of his life as the book continues.  His main goal is to get back to his beloved Albert and you find yourself missing Albert as well.  

This book is very sweet.  Know that you will cry over this book.  If you don’t tear up then you have no soul.  Just kidding, but really, I would wonder about you if you weren’t touched by this book.  I will admit that I read this because Benedict Cumberbatch and Tom Hiddleston are in the movie  adaptation.  I love these two actors but I have yet to see the movie.  I don’t know if I could. I also fear that the movie won’t be as good as the book and that would annoy me too much.  This book is too wonderfully adorable to have it ruined by a movie.  Also,  I know I will cry. I need to make sure I am emotionally ready before I go see this movie.

I have to mention that I gave a book talk on this book with some of my younger students and used the movie trailer during my talk.  There were some students who knew about the book and they turned away from the screen because they thought even the trailer would make them cry.

This is the first book I have read by Michael Morpurgo.  I now plan to read more by him.  Next up on my Morpurgo list is Shadow.