Black Beauty (Macmillan Education)

Anna Sewell called Black Beauty, which was her only book, ‘the autobiography of a horse’. It traces the adventures of the beautiful Black Beauty from his first days to his old age, recording his joys and sorrows as he is sold from one master to another. He encounters both kindness and cruelty, and on the way meets several other horses like Ginger, Merrylegs, Captain and Sir Oliver. Taken together, the lives of these horses offer a vivid picture of the typical fate of horses in England in the nineteenth century. In those days, horses often had short lives and brutal deaths, being subjected to overwork and neglect. Sewell wanted to highlight the plight of these dumb creatures by having a horse narrate its own story. The book was a huge success and compelled people to look at animals differently. It is relevant even today as activists work for better living conditions our furred and feathered friends. Take a ride into the world of horses and horse-drawn carriages to meet Black Beauty and hear his tale. Designed or school-going students, this book contains features which promote language skills such as graded comprehension tasks and exercises for the development of writing skills. There are additional activities to promote communication through discussion and dramatization.