King Of The Wind: The Story Of The Godolphin Arabian (1990) - Plot & Excerpts
So, I’m not a big fan of horse fiction. At all. By horse fiction I mean books about little children (usually girls) who fall in love with a beautiful horse, can think of, dream of, and live with nothing else. This genre tends to be super repetitive.But not King of the Wind. King of the Wind is in a different class altogether. It oozes of Arabian sand and high-blooded stallions. But before I get ahead of myself...The Story. Agba has lost his heart; lost it to the beautiful mare, the mare who lives in the Sultan’s stables. The mare is a lovely thing and she holds a tiny foal deep within her tummy. Tonight is the night it will come into the world.Agba is worried as he tends the mare throughout the night, but the morning sun shines on a new foal, spindly and small in the sunlight. His name will be Sham – the Arabic word for sun – and he will race as the wildest wind, for on his heel is the tiny white spot, the spot of swiftest. A champion among steeds has been born.One day at the Sultan’s command, six stable boys stand before his majesty. He commands that these six boys and the six most magnificent horses in his stable be sent as a gift to King Louis XV and France. Agba and his Sham are chosen. They journey over land and the sea till they arrive in this foreign land of France. King Louis XV uses Sham for a short time, but soon Sham is sold, unjustly sold; sold to a driver of wagons.As Sham is passed from owner to owner, Agba wonders at this. Will Sham ever be appreciated for his splendor and speed? Will he ever be sold to a man worthy to own the King of the Wind?Cautions.King of the Wind was remarkably clean.It is mentioned that a wild boar was kept at the stables to keep evil spirits from entering into the horses.Sham has two markings - one a wheat ear on his chest, the other a tiny spot of white on his heel. The mark on his chest is thought to be a symbol of evil, the white spot an emblem of swiftness. Once or twice in the course of the story, the wheat ear is blamed for unfortunate circumstances.Before the stallions depart from Morocco, the Sultan ties a bag around each horse’s neck. The bags contain “the pedigree of each stallion. They also contain amulets of great power, amulets that will prevent and cure the bite of scorpions and protect your stallions from evil spirits.” [pg. 66] Agba is later very distressed when Sham’s bag is stolen from him.When Sham is being passed from owner to owner, some treat Sham with more care while others are harsh. None are cruel, but extremely sensitive children might be sad until Sham is back with a good owner.Conclusion. An inspiring fictionalized biography whose setting ranges from the opulent magnificence of a Sultan’s palace to the cramped stables of an English Inn. Its adventurous story and historical instruction will thrill its readers – especially those who love animals. Or horse stories. =) Visit The Blithering Bookster to read more reviews.www.blitheringbookster.com
Before I get much farther into this review, I should probably say that I've never been a "horse book" kind of reader. So if you love Black Beauty and National Velvet and The Black Stallion, you may well like King of the Wind more than I did. A lot of the rest of this Goodreads page is full of people who swear by it, largely based on its excellent descriptions of horses and horse behavior.I can't argue with that -- Henry clearly knew her horses -- but I still wasn't all that sold on King of the Wind. It's more or less based on the story of the Godolphin Arabian, a famous horse whose descendants were some of the finest racehorses of all time (including Man o'War, as the oddly disjunct introduction mentions), but it's so heavily romanticized and embellished as to remove any veneer of realism. We follow the Arabian -- known for most of the book as Sham -- from his initial home in the stables of the Sultan of Morocco, to the Royal Court of France, into disgrace as a cart-horse, and finally into triumph as the greatest sire of racehorses in all England. This whole plot relies heavily on chance coincidences, theatrical gestures, and soap-opera dialogue, and I didn't find it believable in the slightest.Maybe that's just my resistance to the genre. After all, I've made no secret of my intense dislike of Smoky, the Cowhorse, and the arc of that book's plot, if not any of the specifics, isn't all that far off from King of the Wind. More troubling, though, is the book's lack of characterization. The Arabian is cared for and followed during the whole story by a mute boy named Agba, whose character exhibits almost no development through the novel, and who seems to exist in the story largely because Henry was unable or unwilling to follow the Will James model and have everything take place in the horse's point of view. (As far as I can tell, Agba seems to be entirely a product of Henry's imagination, as opposed to a real person that she worked into the story.)So, no points for plot or development of characters from me, though Henry's prose is crisp, and the settings (the 1940's ideas about historical Morocco and Islam aside) are well developed. That said, although the 1948 publishing year was a pretty good one for picture books (Blueberries for Sal, Thidwick the Big-Hearted Moose, The Big Snow), it was a weak one for older readers -- maybe the weakest of the decade -- and so I wouldn't characterize King of the Wind as a mistake winner, or anything like that. As I've said before, all publishing years aren't created equal, and King of the Wind was probably as good a choice as anything else. But -- those kids who are really into horses aside -- I think it's a very minor entry in the Newbery canon. A longer version of this review appeared on For Those About To Mock (abouttomock.blogspot.com)
What do You think about King Of The Wind: The Story Of The Godolphin Arabian (1990)?
Below are the comments I made about _King of the Wind_ at my GR group:I recently listened to the audio version of King of the Wind: The Story of the Godolphin Arabian (first published 1948) by Marguerite Henry. It won the 1949 Newbery Medal, an award given to the author of the most distinguished contribution to American literature for children.This fictionalized story is based on fact. The Godolphin Arabian is the ancestor of the finest thoroughbred horses. The story tells about a swift and spirited Arabian horse named "Sham" who is sent by the Sultan of Morocco as a gift to Louis XV of France. Sham eventually sires a colt which is the beginning of the Goldolphin Arabian breed.Although this is a book for young readers, it's an interesting, touching, well-told tale which appeals to older readers as well. A customer review at Amazon says:=========================================================="Marguerite Henry's fictionalized biography of the Goldolphin Arabian, one of the three founding thoroughbred sires, follows the horse Sham and his mute groom Agba from the stables of the Sultan of Morocco through hardship in France and England to celebrated triumph at stud. ... Agba, who never speaks a word, is one of the most absorbing characters in children's fiction. ... it's a must for horse lovers."===========================================================Marguerite Henry also wrote Misty of Chincoteague (1947), about a pony. In 1961, it was made into a movie which is streamable from Netflix:"Misty" (1961)http://movies.netflix.com/Movie/Misty...Jim's review of the Misty book is here:http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...PS-My thanks to Werner whose post originally led me to this story, _King of the Wind_.See his message #44 at: http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/4...
—Joy H.
King of the Wind is one of my favorite books; it has adventure and danger, a good author, a good plot and no plot-holes that I can find. It is written in third person, which sometimes can make you feel apart from the story, but it is awesome in this book. The chapters are short, which makes you feel like you can read a whole bunch without using up too much time, sort of like eating cream-puffs :Pthe book revolves around a slaveboy named Agba and his horse, Sham. It starts before Sham is born, and picks up the pace immediately with Agba worrying over Shams mother, who is about to give birth. When Sham is born, his mother dies, but Agba takes good care of him, even when the Sultan decides to send him and five other slaveboys with a horse each over seas as a present to the boy king. The story seems to go on and on but never get boring, and by the end you're starting to wonder if Agba and Sham will finally get a rest, because it seems that every corner they turn there is something else for them to overcome. However, the book ends spectacularly... I will not give out the details, though. No spoilers!
—Anastasia
This book is an adventure story for any kid who loves horses. I need to do some digging to see how much of this is based on fact. Since it takes place in several countries and over a hundred years ago it might be best read aloud so some context could be provided for kid readers (does the average 9 year old understand about Morrocan sultans or Parisian nobleman?). This features an orphan (almost all my favorite literary characters are orphans - so brave and courageous!) in close relationship with a horse and a cat. Said orphan overcomes impossible obstacles along the way. Great children's lit.This also reminded me of all the "Black Stallion" books I read during my preteen years. Enjoyed remembering all the lovely hours I spent reading about Alec and his great horse. This story is so much better than that!
—Carolyn
