Reader Response #2

                                Black Beauty

 

  I am Taylor and I am doing my reader response to the book “Black Beauty.”  I read 186 pages out of 186 pages.  I think the theme of this book is the care of animals, particularly horses.  The protagonist is Black Beauty, and the antagonist is all of the cruel owners Black Beauty has had.  There really isn’t a main conflict in this story because Black Beauty runs into lots of different bad owners, not just one particular one.  The setting of Black Beauty is in England, and the author is Anna Sewell.  I think that the message is to treat animals with fairness, I think that because Black Beauty has gotten treated really bad in some cases and wished for people to understand that abusing animals is not accept able.  I also think that is the main message because several times in the story people treated other horses badly and by standers would threaten to call the police if they didn’t stop.

                                                     Retell 

  If I could summarize this story in 5 sentences I would say that Black beauty was born and raised by a mother who taught him great manners, she taught him never to bite or kick any human no matter if they treat you badly.  Black Beauty got broken in and was sent to her first home, she stayed there for quite some time until a drunken person rode him and he scrapped his knees very bad.  After that he has been sold off to many different people (some good & some bad.)  After black beauty fainted while pulling a very heavy load up a hill, he recovered in a horse hospital and reunited with a boy named Joe who used to take care of Black Beauty.  Joe swore never to sell Black Beauty and he had a happy life with his new family.  The story “Black Beauty” is told in the perspective of Black Beauty himself.   The worst part of the book for me was when Black Beauty`s stable had a fire and not all of the horses were able to get out, I didn’t like that part because I REALLY love animals and even in a book if animal dies I get upset.  My favourite part of the book was when Black Beauty reunited with Joe, I liked that part the most because all of Black Beauty’s pain was over and he was now in a permanent, happy home.

                                                        Relate

  I can’t really relate to Black Beauty personally because he’s a horse, but I can relate to the people in the text.  I can relate to John (Black Beauty’s first very nice owner) because he saw someone whipping their horse and told them to stop or he was calling the police.  I relate to that because I have a dog and if I EVER saw someone beating their dog I would tell them to stop and call the police too.  The person I felt bad for was Ginger.  I felt bad for her because all of her owners have been really cruel to her and just when she finds a nice home she gets sold.  Ginger actually ends up dying in the book because the owner was working her way to hard, whipped her under the belly, and only fed her minimal food at night.  My favourite character was Black Beauty’s mom, I liked her because she taught her son manners and Black Beauty carried his mom’s advice throughout the whole book.  She kind of reminds me of my mother because my mom always taught me to be respectful and say please and thank you.  If I could be anyone in this text I would be Black Beauty.  I would be him because he is very strong and brave, like one time he saved his owners from a bridge that was about to cave in and he is strong because he tried his best for every job thrown at him.  Even though he gets beat by some people I think he would be the best character to be.

                                                  Reflect

    This book was actually pretty good!  I didn’t find any parts hard to follow or understand, it’s very clear.  The author was born in England and since she was crippled she rode horses a lot to get around, so I think the author wrote Black Beauty to relate to her life which she did a really good job with.  The thing that boggled my mind was the fact that Black Beauty understood every word a human was saying.  I swear animals didn’t understand humans, which that could be sending the wrong message to other kids.  I say that because I read this book once last year during the summer and I spent a good portion of that summer thinking that my dog could understand me, so I was cautious about what I said about my dog wasn’t going to the bathroom when I told him to.  I am still very surprised that I read ANOTHER book not about war and history, I’m glad I am open to more verities now.  This book helped me realize that I like to read about/ learn about animals, I don’t know why I haven’t tried animal books before knowing that I love animals and want to be a vet (I guess it didn’t click in my brain at the time.)  This was a really good book and animal lovers would definitely like this book.