hb ( )

Alec and Henry see some yearlings for sale that look as if The Black was their sire, so they jump on a plane to Europe to investigate, and take their prize stud and main money-making racing stallion along? Really?

Much of this entry in The Black Stallion series requires the reader to suspend common sense. I have no plans to ever read it again. ( )

When Alec Ramsay saw the 3 handsome foreign-born colts, he couldn't believe his eyes. The colts were almost exact models of the Black Stallion! hey must have had the same sire, the the official Arabian records said the Black's sire was dead.

The important thing to remember about the Black Stallion series is that it has always combined adventure with horses. It doesn't matter how that combination comes about, you know that when you pick up one of the books written by Walter Farley, you'll get both of those subjects with one read. Is anyone going to find mysterious horses after being kidnapped and while wandering down a secret tunnel in a sheikh's mountain castle? Of course not. We all know it's not reality, it's adventure. If the human race wanted reality all the time, we wouldn't tell tall tales to our children as bedtime stories. You read the black stallion books because the adventure is so unreal that it is perfect. This book certainly does not disappoint on that level. The mystery is just a bonus! ( )

A little too much goes on here for it to be a straightforwardly good Black Stallion book. Farley was not afraid of over-reaching, which is certainly fun but does cause some eye-rollingly bad scenes. Secret passages? We got 'em! Kidnapping? Yup. Unknown location? Sure. Ghostly horses in the middle of the night? Check.

There's some misogynistic stuff in here that seems reflexive rather than thought-out. Not one of my favorites, for sure. ( )