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We Need a Horse
A horse who wonders why he was a horse and not some other animal gets an answer from the light and learns more as he meets a sheep who believes she must be a tennis player, an apple tree, and other things he encounters.
32 pages, Hardcover
First published June 7, 2011
About the author
Sheila Heti
62 books2,304 followersSheila Heti is the author of ten books, including the novels Motherhood and How Should a Person Be? Her upcoming novel, Pure Colour, will be published on February 15, 2022.
Her second children’s book, A Garden of Creatures, illustrated by Esme Shapiro, will be published in May 2022.
She was named one of "The New Vanguard" by The New York Times; a list of fifteen writers from around the world who are "shaping the way we read and write fiction in the 21st century." Her books have been translated into twenty-three languages.
Motherhood was chosen by the book critics at the New York Times as one of the top books of 2018, and New York magazine chose it as the Best Book of the year. How Should a Person Be? was named one of the 12 “New Classics of the 21st century” by Vulture. It was a New York Times Notable Book, a best book of the year in The New Yorker, and was cited by Time as "one of the most talked-about books of the year.”
Women in Clothes, a collaboration with Leanne Shapton, Heidi Julavits, and 639 women from around the world, was a New York Times bestseller. She is also the author of a children’s book titled We Need a Horse, with art by Clare Rojas.
Her play, All Our Happy Days are Stupid, had sold-out runs at The Kitchen in New York and Videofag in Toronto.
She is the former Interviews Editor of The Believer magazine, and has conducted many long-form print interviews with writers and artists, including Joan Didion, Elena Ferrante, Agnes Varda, Sophie Calle, Dave Hickey and John Currin. Her fiction and criticism have appeared in The New Yorker, McSweeney’s, Bookforum, n+1, Granta, The London Review of Books, and elsewhere.
She has spoken at the Museum of Modern Art, the Tate Modern, the New Yorker Festival, the 92nd Street Y, the Hammer Museum, the Art Institute of Chicago, and at universities across North America, and festivals internationally. Her six-hour lecture on writing, delivered in the Spring of 2021, can be purchased through the Leslie Shipman agency.
She is the founder of the Trampoline Hall lecture series, and appeared in Margaux Williamson’s 2012 film Teenager Hamlet, and in Leanne Shapton’s book, Important Artifacts. She lives in Toronto.
Her second children’s book, A Garden of Creatures, illustrated by Esme Shapiro, will be published in May 2022.
She was named one of "The New Vanguard" by The New York Times; a list of fifteen writers from around the world who are "shaping the way we read and write fiction in the 21st century." Her books have been translated into twenty-three languages.
Motherhood was chosen by the book critics at the New York Times as one of the top books of 2018, and New York magazine chose it as the Best Book of the year. How Should a Person Be? was named one of the 12 “New Classics of the 21st century” by Vulture. It was a New York Times Notable Book, a best book of the year in The New Yorker, and was cited by Time as "one of the most talked-about books of the year.”
Women in Clothes, a collaboration with Leanne Shapton, Heidi Julavits, and 639 women from around the world, was a New York Times bestseller. She is also the author of a children’s book titled We Need a Horse, with art by Clare Rojas.
Her play, All Our Happy Days are Stupid, had sold-out runs at The Kitchen in New York and Videofag in Toronto.
She is the former Interviews Editor of The Believer magazine, and has conducted many long-form print interviews with writers and artists, including Joan Didion, Elena Ferrante, Agnes Varda, Sophie Calle, Dave Hickey and John Currin. Her fiction and criticism have appeared in The New Yorker, McSweeney’s, Bookforum, n+1, Granta, The London Review of Books, and elsewhere.
She has spoken at the Museum of Modern Art, the Tate Modern, the New Yorker Festival, the 92nd Street Y, the Hammer Museum, the Art Institute of Chicago, and at universities across North America, and festivals internationally. Her six-hour lecture on writing, delivered in the Spring of 2021, can be purchased through the Leslie Shipman agency.
She is the founder of the Trampoline Hall lecture series, and appeared in Margaux Williamson’s 2012 film Teenager Hamlet, and in Leanne Shapton’s book, Important Artifacts. She lives in Toronto.
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Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews
June 7, 2012
I've always appreciated the attention to detail and the thought/effort that McSweeneys puts into all its publications. Yes their actual literary quality varies wildly, and the style of writing McSweeneys champions sometimes verges on overly precious or twee. But more often then not I find their published works to be genuinely inspired, perfectly pitched, funny and/or unique. And Dave Eggers is a mensch. For years now he's been putting out lavish, high production value-publications with no ads, and quietly funneling the money (which can't be much; this is clearly a labor of love) into children's writing workshops and community education programs. Not to mention they made a valiant attempt to resuscitate the dying art of newspaper-ing, by putting out an amazing "prototype" San Francisco newspaper which sold out instantly and made full use of the broadsheet format, demonstrating its potential in a way most real newspapers never do. Their collection of humorous lists is hilarious and seemingly infinite... they publish like 50 new ones every day. (Where do they get all these lists? Why can't I ever think of one? Lord knows I've tried.) And then there was that time they put out an issue of their print mag consisting of 14 separate booklets, one per piece, and they let each author choose the cover for his/her own booklet!! Such a simple idea but it's amazing how rarely authors actually get any say in this at all! Really highlighted the absurdity of that to me. Anyway I'm rambling but to summarize: I heart McSweeneys.
Now that I got that off my chest, I suppose I should discuss We Need a Horse specifically.
-suitable for 3 year olds but not annoying as f*** for 35 year olds, which is possibly the highest praise one can give a to a "kids book"
-story is about this horse who questions the light and befriends a sheep and yadda yadda.
-story is surreal and really benefits from a high level of ambiguity; as opposed to so many of the children's books I read that are painfully "on the nose".
-book cover unfolds into a beautiful poster (larger version of one of the pages from the books)
Truthfully We Need a Horse is a four star book. But I'm giving it the extra star as a lifetime achievement award for Dave Eggers & McSweeneys, the Believer and associated enterprises. They deserve it
Now that I got that off my chest, I suppose I should discuss We Need a Horse specifically.
-suitable for 3 year olds but not annoying as f*** for 35 year olds, which is possibly the highest praise one can give a to a "kids book"
-story is about this horse who questions the light and befriends a sheep and yadda yadda.
-story is surreal and really benefits from a high level of ambiguity; as opposed to so many of the children's books I read that are painfully "on the nose".
-book cover unfolds into a beautiful poster (larger version of one of the pages from the books)
Truthfully We Need a Horse is a four star book. But I'm giving it the extra star as a lifetime achievement award for Dave Eggers & McSweeneys, the Believer and associated enterprises. They deserve it
August 30, 2011
again, McSweeney's McMullens are a good idea with super wonderful think pages and "paint", cool, tough looking binding, and bonus reversible poster/dust jacket. This story is some sort of zen/indian philosophical text about being aware of all around you,, and being satisfied with yourself as a part of the world that gives you gifts of living at the same time that is demands empathy and compassion from you. i gave it 4 stars because the story did tug harder while reading and the colors, plants and animals were interesting. the sheep with the tennis racket is sort of an unreliable narrator, so some pomo going on too.
August 2, 2011
This is one of those great allegory picturebooks that I think that adults are able to process more easily than kids. The illustrations are cuter than all get out and I love their style and simplicity. We had an interesting discussion amongst ourselves about what we thought happened to the horse at the end.
Wouldn't use for storytime, but overall I can see recommending it to a child that feels "out of place"
Wouldn't use for storytime, but overall I can see recommending it to a child that feels "out of place"
March 2, 2013
My first reaction to this book was to be morally disturbed. The book is about creatures (horse, sheep) who are created by "the light," a talking character who tells them their purpose (the world needed you, says the light). The horse accepts this blindly, the sheep (at first) does not. The horse grows surer of its purpose as it continues in the world, believing that every interaction it has is destined by "the light" and therefore good. The sheep seems to be satisfied that it exists for the horse to comfort, and that the horse exists to comfort it.
The morality here feels similar to that of Coelho's The Alchemist, another book that grates on me. This kind of morality, that everything is purposeful, that everything happens for a reason, that the world is full of good fortune, bothers me more deeply than just about any other philosophical or religious claim I can think of. I'd take fundamentalist Christianity over this any day.
In fact, in spite of this book's Unitarian-like creator named "light," I think I'd still take the Jesus story (with all its attendant gore and horror) over this any day on a *moral* level. You can't hear the Jesus story and think that God is all-powerful and all-loving, after all. What kind of father would allow his son to be crucified, let alone create a world in which crucifixion existed? And so the agony of the Christ story gets at something like the fundamental painfulness and ambiguity of life, and so even though it includes ridiculous supernatural beliefs (Lazarus, walking on water), the fundamental truths it reveals (pain, love, evil) are not so far off reality. It seems like even the simplest child must bristle at the Christ story and see something about the fundamental contradictions inherent in any belief in an omnipotent benevolent force in the world.
The moral understanding of this horse book, on the other hand, seems to be that we all have a purpose, and that we can even be told the purpose, and that once we accept that purpose, we have achieved the ultimate goal in life. That seems crazy to me, and a horrible thing to tell children, or anyone else for that matter.
The upside is that, as others have noted, most likely children are not taking away the moral message from this book, so the harm is not all that great. My kids wanted to discuss this character of "the light," and seemed annoyed that I suggested that what was clearly a rising sun on one page was a sun, and not "the light," which was a character, and obviously couldn't be the "sun" since the "sun" can't talk. And of course, I'll take images of horses and sunrises over images of a crucifix any day, because in spite of my moral claims in the last paragraph, I don't actually have any desire for my children to learn about the existence of murder, let alone crucifixion -- we try to stop all the Christmas songs early enough to avoid that part, and so on -- and so if I have to expose my children to some corrupting religiosity, I suppose this isn't as bad as it might be.
The fact that this thing came out of McSweeney's just adds a layer of confusion for me. It is a beautifully produced book I suppose, but nothing in this suggests it ever came within a mile of the mind of Dave Eggers, a man with far too much sense (and too much experience) to sign onto anything like the morality embraced by this book.
The morality here feels similar to that of Coelho's The Alchemist, another book that grates on me. This kind of morality, that everything is purposeful, that everything happens for a reason, that the world is full of good fortune, bothers me more deeply than just about any other philosophical or religious claim I can think of. I'd take fundamentalist Christianity over this any day.
In fact, in spite of this book's Unitarian-like creator named "light," I think I'd still take the Jesus story (with all its attendant gore and horror) over this any day on a *moral* level. You can't hear the Jesus story and think that God is all-powerful and all-loving, after all. What kind of father would allow his son to be crucified, let alone create a world in which crucifixion existed? And so the agony of the Christ story gets at something like the fundamental painfulness and ambiguity of life, and so even though it includes ridiculous supernatural beliefs (Lazarus, walking on water), the fundamental truths it reveals (pain, love, evil) are not so far off reality. It seems like even the simplest child must bristle at the Christ story and see something about the fundamental contradictions inherent in any belief in an omnipotent benevolent force in the world.
The moral understanding of this horse book, on the other hand, seems to be that we all have a purpose, and that we can even be told the purpose, and that once we accept that purpose, we have achieved the ultimate goal in life. That seems crazy to me, and a horrible thing to tell children, or anyone else for that matter.
The upside is that, as others have noted, most likely children are not taking away the moral message from this book, so the harm is not all that great. My kids wanted to discuss this character of "the light," and seemed annoyed that I suggested that what was clearly a rising sun on one page was a sun, and not "the light," which was a character, and obviously couldn't be the "sun" since the "sun" can't talk. And of course, I'll take images of horses and sunrises over images of a crucifix any day, because in spite of my moral claims in the last paragraph, I don't actually have any desire for my children to learn about the existence of murder, let alone crucifixion -- we try to stop all the Christmas songs early enough to avoid that part, and so on -- and so if I have to expose my children to some corrupting religiosity, I suppose this isn't as bad as it might be.
The fact that this thing came out of McSweeney's just adds a layer of confusion for me. It is a beautifully produced book I suppose, but nothing in this suggests it ever came within a mile of the mind of Dave Eggers, a man with far too much sense (and too much experience) to sign onto anything like the morality embraced by this book.
March 5, 2011
An interesting book--not suprising considering it is in the first batch of releases from McSweeny's children's imprint: McSweeney's McMullens. There's something curious and thoughtful about the story and the illustrations are unique. Recommended for fans of Daydreams of a Solitary Hamster and others who enjoy a gentle, layered story.
Note: Review based on PDF preview copy.
Note: Review based on PDF preview copy.
November 22, 2018
I fell head over heels for this book on the first page with these lines:
"The speckled horse made his way through the field, softly, trying not to step on any insects of worms.
After all, he wouldn't have wanted anyone to step on him."
This is a deeply philosophical book about finding our place in an interconnected world.
Clare Rojas art is gorgeous!
"The speckled horse made his way through the field, softly, trying not to step on any insects of worms.
After all, he wouldn't have wanted anyone to step on him."
This is a deeply philosophical book about finding our place in an interconnected world.
Clare Rojas art is gorgeous!
August 31, 2018
Kinda weird, but I think I loved it.
October 18, 2022
A book about how we are all connected and all serve a purpose.
March 4, 2025
beuaitful
January 1, 2012
A little conflicted with this one. I didn't connect with it as much as the others from the first McSweeney's McMullens books, but it is still a gorgeous book with a deep story (especially for such a short book). The design is great and--like the other McMullens prints--the dust jacket turns into an oversize double-sided poster. I also liked the sheep with a tennis racket.
But, if I weren't a McSweeney's completist and had to choose which book I wanted to buy, it would have been Symphony City or Keep Our Secrets before We Need a Horse.
I guess in the end, I'll go with the McMullens' editors and the author. We need We Need a Horse. And so it's here.
But, if I weren't a McSweeney's completist and had to choose which book I wanted to buy, it would have been Symphony City or Keep Our Secrets before We Need a Horse.
I guess in the end, I'll go with the McMullens' editors and the author. We need We Need a Horse. And so it's here.
December 19, 2016
This strange children's picture book made an impression upon me. Perhaps most children would not be invested in the musings of the beings in this story. But, the sentiment is beautiful: wondering about why we are here and accepting ourselves in the grand scheme of things. I also enjoyed the "folk art" illustrations.
February 5, 2012
Not really for kids...much too metaphysical for them I think. The rather brief story is more like a zen koan and best appreciated by those into existentialist inquiries. Love the illustrations, even though they are not realistic (e.g., the horse's head/mouth looks more like a fox to me).
December 28, 2014
Beautiful illustrations, but awkward ending... Could lead to a great discussion with kids about the cycle of life, or it could confuse kids. I like to believe that children can handle more than we give them credit for, so this warning is more for the parents than the kids ;)
August 18, 2011
Notwithstanding the rad paintings, I think my mind just exploded. Travel with horse as he goes from questioning the meaning of his existence into ecstacy and accepts the perfection in every moment.
Read
September 4, 2011A bit too metaphysical for a childrens' book.
June 7, 2012
The story is too surreal for my 5yo, but I dig it. Illustrations are also lovely.
November 25, 2013
Made me cry when she read the book to us.
September 15, 2015
Beautiful illustrations but too pretentious on the existentialism.
March 30, 2016
I was confused reading this!
September 29, 2016
Fantastic book on belonging, for young ones and grownups alike
October 6, 2016
Evidently, I'm too dull to really appreciate this story. I did, however, enjoy the pictures!
Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews