Black Beauty

Written nearly a century and a half ago, this book was the first major animal story in children’s literature, although the author had intended it for adults.

Anna Sewell had been crippled at a young age but could still drive a horse-drawn carriage. She often drove her father to the station to go to work and later picked him up to bring him home. During those times, she saw there was often inhumane treatment of horses and was inspired to write about it in order, as she said, “To induce kindness, sympathy, and an understanding treatment of horses.” She spent the last seven years of her life writing her only novel, Black Beauty, told in first-person narration by Black Beauty himself.

As we all know, horses can’t write or tell their life story. Therefore, as narrator, John Rayburn says he speaks as the horse, telling the story of the horse as you are invited to listen to the tale of a courageous animal.

And don’t miss Rayburn’s historic reenactment of four World Series Classics … 1945 Cubs-Tigers, 1946 Cardinals-Red Sox, and 1956 Yankees-Brooklyn Dodgers.