I recently saw and met Sophie Blackall at the Children’s Literature Conference. This is an annual conference held in Bellingham, Washington (where I live), but this was the first time I’ve attended. It was a great conference in many ways (more on that to come), and one of the things that made it so great was Sophie Blackall’s presentation.
Sophie is an author-illustrator who has created numerous best-selling and award-winning works, including two Caldecott winners. (I had earlier written about another of her books, If We Were Dogs.) As a small part of her talk on her work and her creative process, she mentioned this book, and its origin in her son’s dream. Sophie’s a great storyteller and presenter, and hearing this book’s origin story, however briefly, was intoxicating, so I picked it up from my local library.
This book’s title is perfectly focused: the entire book is a series of scenarios of what it would be like if a kid became a horse. These scenarios range from very horsey things (like galloping) to very kid-like things (like using the size and strength of horses to get out of childhood obligations, like taking a bath). The sheer size of the horse fills the pages (in ways that kids never can), and the images are sometimes quite active (horses rolling in mud) and sometimes quite still (horses just standing and looming). On all pages, there is acceptance and independence, and often power, which are all things kids often lack. The book ends with a kid riding happily on someone’s back, giving them a taste of horse glory in human form.
