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Blue Canyon Horse
55 pages of excellent text, filled with great illustrations.
55 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1954
11 people want to read
About the author
Ann Nolan Clark
91 books11 followersAnn Nolan Clark, born Anna Marie Nolan, was an American writer who won the 1953 Newbery Medal.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
June 29, 2025
Forgotten treasure.
As part of a book winnowing project, I rediscovered this treasure among my little vintage collection of children's books. Printed in 1954 by Viking Press in a library binding. Those amazing old bindings (I don't see them being done for children's books in libraries any more) happily means this book will last for at least 100 or more years.
I grew up in New Mexico seeing the Houser sculptures in our local art museum, taken there often by school trips and by my grandmother. Artist Allan Houser was an Apache artist, part of the Modern art trending at that time, his sculptures flowing and simplified Native American figures in bronze. His illustrations here are different than his sculptures, more traditional, but have also a distinctive Houser style.
The illustrations are often arrestingly beautiful.
Together Houser's illustrations with New Mexico native and school teacher Ann Nolan Clark's prose, a prose that echoes poetry, make an immersive reading experience. It is a simple story about a wild mare and an Apache boy's relationship, living in the deep canyons of the American West. It took me a couple of hours to read, stopping so often to spend time with the illustrations and feel the reverberations of the text.
I've been winnowing, but this book is a keeper. Clark and Houser created a lovely work, that quietly took me to a place and time, one that felt familiar to me.
As part of a book winnowing project, I rediscovered this treasure among my little vintage collection of children's books. Printed in 1954 by Viking Press in a library binding. Those amazing old bindings (I don't see them being done for children's books in libraries any more) happily means this book will last for at least 100 or more years.
I grew up in New Mexico seeing the Houser sculptures in our local art museum, taken there often by school trips and by my grandmother. Artist Allan Houser was an Apache artist, part of the Modern art trending at that time, his sculptures flowing and simplified Native American figures in bronze. His illustrations here are different than his sculptures, more traditional, but have also a distinctive Houser style.
The illustrations are often arrestingly beautiful.
Together Houser's illustrations with New Mexico native and school teacher Ann Nolan Clark's prose, a prose that echoes poetry, make an immersive reading experience. It is a simple story about a wild mare and an Apache boy's relationship, living in the deep canyons of the American West. It took me a couple of hours to read, stopping so often to spend time with the illustrations and feel the reverberations of the text.
I've been winnowing, but this book is a keeper. Clark and Houser created a lovely work, that quietly took me to a place and time, one that felt familiar to me.
January 4, 2022
I can't believe that it has taken me this long to come across this particular gem of a book and I am quite glad I chose to give it a chance.
The writing for Blue Canyon Horse has a beautiful rhythm to it that makes it sound like a combination of an oral telling as well as a non-rhyming poem so at times it repeats itself. But it is beautifully descriptive and captures the core of the wild mare as well as the land she lives in along with the Native boy who is her owner. And as such this book feels like it is a snapshot of a place that is somewhat exotically foreign but at the same time familiar.
As for the illustrations they are a treasure in their own with an alternative exchange being used of colored-in-sketches in a palette of earth tones and black-and-white uncolored sketches. If the writing doesn't capture the imagination than most definitely the magic of the illustrations most definitely will.
Here is most definitely a wonderful gem hiding in plain sight and if you should ever get a chance to come across it then I would highly recommend reading it, especially if you like Native culture, nature and/or wild horses.
The writing for Blue Canyon Horse has a beautiful rhythm to it that makes it sound like a combination of an oral telling as well as a non-rhyming poem so at times it repeats itself. But it is beautifully descriptive and captures the core of the wild mare as well as the land she lives in along with the Native boy who is her owner. And as such this book feels like it is a snapshot of a place that is somewhat exotically foreign but at the same time familiar.
As for the illustrations they are a treasure in their own with an alternative exchange being used of colored-in-sketches in a palette of earth tones and black-and-white uncolored sketches. If the writing doesn't capture the imagination than most definitely the magic of the illustrations most definitely will.
Here is most definitely a wonderful gem hiding in plain sight and if you should ever get a chance to come across it then I would highly recommend reading it, especially if you like Native culture, nature and/or wild horses.
June 17, 2008
A story that reminds me of the saying, "If you love something, set it free. If it comes back to you, it was meant to be."
A horse hears a 'wild call' and runs away from her master to join a wild herd. Will she chose wildness and freedom, or shelter, food, comfort and safety?
A horse hears a 'wild call' and runs away from her master to join a wild herd. Will she chose wildness and freedom, or shelter, food, comfort and safety?
October 7, 2016
Very nice illustrations, but the poetic text goes on and on.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews