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Post by Claire on Apr 22, 2010 19:13:29 GMT 1
Thanks very much kunuma You never know a miracle might occur and it arrives quickly! Rosie I'll try and find some silver brumbies for the farm but I'm running out of clip art!
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Post by darkhorse on Apr 22, 2010 21:07:28 GMT 1
What I liked about the book when I read it as a child was that it was different to all the other pony books I had read. Apart from Black Beauty it was the only one where the horses were the focal characters rather than the people. (It wasn't until I was an adult that I found out about Moorland Mouise and all the other vintage books where the viewpoint was from the horse) I liked the way the horses and animals talked, I don't think it detracted from the realism. Like most British readers of the book, I also loved the exotic settings and plants and animals I had never heard of before. I also liked that man is the enemy and that the preferred state of a horse is to be wild rather than ridden, which was a complete contrast to the PT, Jill books etc, which were all I had read until then. As an adult I still find the books just as enjoyable. Unlike some of the more traditional type pony stories, it has not aged at all and really is a timeless story. I just can't find anything to criticise in the book at all.
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Post by Claire on Apr 25, 2010 13:34:10 GMT 1
Susan, if you are about, did you get round to reading the book?
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Post by susanb on Apr 25, 2010 19:30:22 GMT 1
erm............... (blushes guiltily) I'm working on it!
I had a late start....the deadline for filing income tax seemed to come up shockingly quickly, and the forms were worse than ever (Federal was do-able, but Massachusetts gets to look more and more like a fill-in-the-blank edition of War and Peace every year).
That done, however, I took up the book and started! Then I got to this passage:
Bel Bel was all for chasing the man. "He was no stockman, he had no rope or whip," she said.
At which point I screamed "arrrghhhhh!!!!". I can take horses talking to each other, though it's not my favorite thing. I can take horses-in-the-wild, though again, not a big fan, but when you start writing about horses discussing hunting down and attacking people....oh, yes, right, that's just TOTALLY horsey behavior!
Sigh...from then on, I've picked it up, read a page, put it down, read another book; picked it up, read a page, put it down, etc., etc., etc. You get the picture.
On the bright side, I've been flying through my tbr pile....have read bios on Florence Nightingale, Harriet Tubman and Madame Curie in the last week!
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Post by Claire on Apr 25, 2010 19:57:27 GMT 1
Lol Susan, I never really picked up on that bit. But saying that I have met a few horses who would definitely hunt down men if they could! I do like it when we have opposing views on books...makes it more interesting! And it sounds like its not your cup of tea! You can prob relate to the criticisms of the author. I think to enjoy the book you have to see it as a sort of fantasy of wild horses rather than the real thing. After all we have Bel Bel's spirit/ghost cropping up in much of the later books and in others they are also mystical elements. I think that the sometimes human-like behaviour of the horses and the mystical elements were criticised because the author went out of her way to include lots of very realistic description of the bush and horse behaviour. Some would find this a bit too much of a contrast. (Hmm was just thinking if you don't like books where animals talk to each other you may not like Watership Down which I have recommended to you strongly - you may have to move it back to the bottom of your to-read pile ) Kunuma, I know you are a big fan of the silver brumby books - what do you think about the talking issue and the at times unrealistic behaviour?
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Post by Buster on Apr 25, 2010 20:10:57 GMT 1
Right! Have finished it! Ok so firstly let me say, I loved it. It wasn't what I was expecting, as I was thinking it would be a bit more... 'child-friendly' you know, glossing over the harsher points. But it didnt, and thats why I thought it made a great book. It was realistic, not too happy clappy, but not all doom and gloom either. I loved the way the horses could speak to each other, the author clearly knew a lot about horse behaviour as it explained the little things horses do, i.e nipping each other playfully, ive never got why they do that but it was included and it made sense. I also loved all the Australian names, I didnt understand a lot of them, but in the version I got it had pictures of some of the more stange creatures, with titles, which was handy ! I really like the characters, and how they were shown to have distinct personalities. I especially loved Bel Bel. And Storm and Thowras relationship. Ooh and also Golden, how it showed that she still had loyalty to her old master An allround good book!
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Post by susanb on Apr 25, 2010 23:39:52 GMT 1
Sigh.....everyone loves this one so! I'll have to keep plugging away...maybe it'll grow on me as it goes on!!
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Post by trixiepony on Apr 26, 2010 3:13:14 GMT 1
Well not everyone loves the book I know I love it but my cousin hated it, we had sum arguments about it.
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Post by Claire on Apr 27, 2010 11:35:02 GMT 1
No, as I said before its interesting when we have conflicting views. Would be boring if everyone liked and loathed the same books. Saying that, glad we have another silver brumby fan in mysteryarab - don't forgot to vote btw! As darkhorse says it shows that the books havent dated when they can still be enjoyed by new readers today.
I also really like the character of Bel Bel, mysteryarab, a shame she wasn't in more of the brumby books, tho of course her 'spirit' does appear from time to time in some of the others. I woud have liked to have known more about her life and how she became a 'lone wolf' and became friends with Storm's mother. That would have made a good story.
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Post by kunuma on Apr 29, 2010 11:20:57 GMT 1
Quite forgot I hadn't posted - not on the computer much at the moment, as I'm doing waaay too much in real life and it hurts too much to sit still!! Who was it said about being in the horses world as an outsider, as opposed to trying to make them part of ours, thats IT exactly! It's why I love the books, I have always wanted to live with wolves, but NOT by keeping them as a pet, or by keeping some poor handreared specimens in a pen, and calling them a pack, but in the wild - with them being wild wolves and me being allowed to share some of that life. There is an author, who has written a series like that, sort of the wolf version of the Silver brumbies - but he didn't know enough about wolves, and their conversations are very unrealistic! Bel Bel had tremendous knowlege and wisdom, she was 'special' and her wisdom gave her a more power amongst the horses than even a lead mare is accustomed to. True wild animals do have a magic, and she personified that. Her training of her family in bush lore was more than a real horse would have been able to do, but it was very fact based - lead mares do run the herd, correct dangerous behaviour and guard the youngsters. I'll never forget how Throwa was taught to move quietly and leave no tracks, just how real wild animals can seem to appear and then vanish! Contrast her with Golden, beautiful but very much a tame horse, she could never be a lead mare, she stayed home with the kids (in the Secret Valley and had foals)
It was Silver Brumby's daughter which made me a lifetime fan, the descriptions of how she felt about being captured, broken in, and then returned to the wild, could not have been written by someone who didn't know horses VERY well. I knew nothing about stallions either when I first read them, later I realised how good her knowlege of them was too!
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Post by alicat on Jul 14, 2010 18:50:00 GMT 1
I always loved the Silver Brumby, it made perfect sense to me that the horses could speak.
it still does, they speak horse and I speak human but I can understand my horse and she can understand me
it was the first book I read as a child that seemed to appreciate that horses have senses people don't have...
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