The Horn Book Guide

SCIENCE

McCully, Emily Arnold

Wonder Horse: The True Story of the World's Smartest Horse

32 pp. | Holt | June, 2010 | Trade ISBN 978-0-8050-8793-2 $16.99

(2) K-3 Bill "Doc" Key, born a slave, later became a veterinarian. Apparently, Doc taught his astonishingly intelligent horse, Jim Key, the alphabet, numbers, even colors. In her concluding note, McCully is suitably skeptical; but whatever truths lie behind this engaging tale, it's a fine portrait of accomplishment. In McCully's signature watercolors, the pre-industrial setting and its rural inhabitants are realized at their bucolic best. Bib.

Reviewer: Joanna Rudge Long | Horn Book Magazine Issue: July, 2010