Blue Horse is a story about a girl coping with moving to a new place. Tilly, the main character is too shy to approach the other children that play near her new house. Rather than making friends, she stays inside her room and realizes how boring it is playing alone. As she tries to entertain herself, Tilly finds that one of her toys, a blue horse, can talk. They quickly become best friends and go on great adventures together. Tilly's friendship with Blue Horse helps to boost her confidence in this story. I like this book because the author shows how children often develop imaginary friends to cope with difficult situations they may face. It also shows students that meeting new friends can be intimidating, but that once you take the step to meet them, they can be just as comfortable and nice as old friends.
The illustrations in this book are excellent. The colors are vivid, and the drawings are juvenile in a good way, as they add to the comfort of the child's view from which the book is written. Tilly is portrayed as a girl with dark hair and eyes, but the line "Tilly was new in town" leaves her previous home open for interpretation. She could easily be from across town or from across an ocean. Regardless of the reason, I believe that Blue Horse is a great book to help children transition to a new environment, whether they find themselves in a new school, town, state, or country. However it could even just relate to those students who are more shy than others.
In a nation that is constantly growing and moving, books that talk to children about these transitions are increasingly relevant. I think this sounds like an excellent book for teachers to keep in their classroom libraries. It is important for children to understand how hard it is to go to a new school, and how new students often feel lonely and isolated. I have noticed a number of books lately that deal with this issue, and I think that is a very positive thing. As teachers, I think it is great that we can use literature like "Blue Horse" to help our students understand what other children are going through.
ReplyDeleteI love that you found a book about moving. I personally have five kids in my cooperating classroom who are new to our school this year and I think this would be a great book to read to a class so that the new kids would have a character to identify with and the other students would gain some insight as to how the new kids feel. This could also foster a great discussion in among students about moving, being new and feeling isolated which would be invaluable.
ReplyDeleteI think it's great that this is a fantasy book and also one that most kids can relate to in some form. Tilly's blue horse can be another girl's baby doll or a little boy's real puppy...whether real or imaginary, they are all friends for kids. I think the idea of moving is one that all kids can relate to; at the least, kids move from one school to another during their careers.
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