Decorated Horses

by Dorothy Hinshaw Patent, Jeannie Brett (Illustrator)

Overview

This nonfiction picture book about horses has a fresh focus: how people over the ages have decorated horses in special ways. Organized into three categories—warfare and hunting, performance and competition, performance, and ceremony—the book introduces horses such as the chariot-pulling war horse of the Persians to the rose-decorated winner of the Kentucky Derby.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781607347583
Publisher:	Charlesbridge
Publication date:	02/10/2015
Sold by:	Penguin Random House Publisher Services
Format:	eBook
Pages:	48
Lexile:	1180L (what's this?)
File size:	37 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.
Age Range:	8 - 12 Years

About the Author

Dorothy Hinshaw Patent has published more than one hundred science and nature books for children, including When the Wolves Returned: Restoring Nature’s Balance in Yellowstone (Walker, 2008), The Buffalo and the Indians: A Shared History (Clarion, 2006), and Big Cats (Walker, 2005). You can read more about her body of work at www.dorothyhinshawpatent.com.

Editorial Reviews

This informational picture book provides a fascinating history of how humans have trained, interacted with, and decorated horses. Examples include chariot horses, samurai mounts, and racehorses. The work begins with a general introduction and then goes on to three sections: "Warfare and Hunting," "Performance and Competition," and "Ceremony and Celebration." For each type of horse, readers will find two or three paragraphs of descriptive, engaging text about its history. The watercolor illustrations focus on the horses, while the depictions of people and background activities are less detailed. Labeled pictures of the animal's anatomy and tack are a good resource for those less familiar with the subject. VERDICT An interesting, though brief overview of horses of possible use for social studies or history lessons. A supplemental purchase.
-School Library Journal

This colorfully illustrated volume notes that humans domesticated horses more than 9,000 years ago and discusses how various cultures have equipped and decorated horses for different purposes. The book’s three thematic sections are “Warfare and Hunting,” “Performance and Competition,” and “Ceremony and Celebration.” Each double-page spread includes several paragraphs of information on the use and adornment of horses in particular cultures. For example, the first section includes ancient Assyrian chariot horses wearing elaborate headdresses into battle (1800 BCE), thirteenth-century Mongol warriors’ mounts covered by armor, and nineteenth-century American Indians’ horses painted with symbols for power and protection. The remaining sections also feature a broad range of historical cultures, including modern examples such as the garland of roses draped over a Kentucky Derby winner. Illustrating the informative text are full-page watercolor paintings enhanced with gouache, pastel, and colored pencil. A satisfying choice for kids who love horses, this well-researched book will carry them beyond their immediate interest and into the broader sphere of world history.
-Booklist

From the Publisher

04/01/2015
Gr 3–6—This informational picture book provides a fascinating history of how humans have trained, interacted with, and decorated horses. Examples include chariot horses, samurai mounts, and racehorses. The work begins with a general introduction and then goes on to three sections: "Warfare and Hunting," "Performance and Competition," and "Ceremony and Celebration." For each type of horse, readers will find two or three paragraphs of descriptive, engaging text about its history. The watercolor illustrations focus on the horses, while the depictions of people and background activities are less detailed. Labeled pictures of the animal's anatomy and tack are a good resource for those less familiar with the subject. VERDICT An interesting, though brief overview of horses of possible use for social studies or history lessons. A supplemental purchase.—Tamara Saarinen, Pierce County Library, WA

School Library Journal

2014-11-18
Bright colors and ornate furbelows flash in this survey of horsey fashion through the ages.The vague topic and Patent's accompanying commentary—being noticeably thin on specifics—come off as pretexts for an album of portraits for coltish horse lovers. Unfortunately, Brett doesn't pick up the slack, as both horses and human figures posing in her flat paintings are drawn with unfinished, generic features, and the various blankets, braids, straps, plumes, fringes, saddles and pieces of armor on view are neither consistently identified nor displayed to best advantage. Grouped by function, the gallery of 14 examples opens with war horses (including armored steeds from an unspecified period of the Middle Ages and an Egyptian chariot confusingly paired to an Assyrian scenario set several centuries too early). It then goes on to portray horses trained to dance, race or compete in never-explained ways as draft teams. Following a final batch duded up for parades or, in ancient Scythia, ritual burial, a pair of labeled portraits, one of equine body parts and the other of standard tack, is shoehorned in. Even readers mad for all things horse won't give this more than a quick graze before galloping off to richer pastures. (index, bibliography, websites) (Nonfiction. 9-11)

Kirkus Reviews