We Need a Horse

Gr 3 Up—A speckled steed walks through a field and asks the light why he was made a horse and not another animal. The light answers, "Because we needed another horse." He encounters a sheep with a tennis racket strapped to her back who is unhappy that she was not made a human, but is satisfied when the horse says he likes her. He goes on to find an apple and says, "I guess they needed to make an apple…so I could come along and eat it." To which the apple replies, "I guess they needed to make this horse, so she could come and eat me." The horse sits down in the grass, which sings a song. Finally, the darkness comes to take the horse away, and he is not scared or lonely, for now he understands everything. Heti's confusing exercise in existentialism will not appeal to children, and the implication of death will not be easy for an adult to explain. The text in this oversize book may attempt to impart some kind of mystical knowledge, but the message is too abstract to make any sense. Rojas's static pictures of pointy animals and uninteresting backgrounds look more sinister than endearing. A book with no definite audience.—Martha Simpson, Stratford Library Association, CT