Robert the Rose Horse

by Joan Heilbroner, P.D. Eastman (Illustrator)

Roses make Robert the horse sneeze, so he moves from the country to the city, but still can't avoid them.

Genres: Picture Books, Childrens, Fiction, Horses, Animals, Classics, Humor

72 pages, Hardcover

First published February 12, 1962

About the author

Joan Heilbroner is best known for Robert the Rose Horse, published in 1961 and acquired by Dr. Seuss. Inspired by her grandchildren and their pet snake, she wrote A Pet Named Sneaker. A Columbia graduate, she worked as a school librarian until retirement.

Reviews

[Calista · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a lovely story this fun and winsome story is. It’s about a horse who loves roses and lives on a rose farm. He goes to the city to get away from roses and loses job after job due to a rose popping up somewhere.

This is a beginning book from the 60s with P. D. Eastman here and his digging-nest dog shows up in a part of the story. The kids loved it and we all recognized him. There is a charm here that is timeless. The kids loved this story. They did. They rooted for the horse and they knew when a big sneeze disaster was about to hit. When the horse made all the people and things scatter with a mighty blow, the kids howled with laughter and they figured out how the horse would end the last scene. This book still charms the next generation. I did not read this as a kid, but as an adult, I still enjoyed this book. It is a wonder.

The niece gave this 4 stars and the nephew gave this 5. I say, if a book from the 60s can still entertain, then it is timeless and I give it 5 stars.

[Khari · Rating 5 out of 5]

When my boss heard that I was embarking on this great and impressive march through children's literature, she promptly went to her chest and dug out all of her childhood favorites and pressed them upon me.

This was one of them.

I brought it home and my mom broke into laughter, because she also remembered this book. I, sadly, did not. So I had to read it, and let me tell you, it was pretty funny.

Again, I'm astonished by what they considered to be beginner books in the 1960s. This thing is not exactly short. It has a full on narrative arc and character development. It builds up expectations and plays on them in order to entice the reader. It was pretty darn good.

Story: Funny
Art: Engaging and amusing
Price: Out of Print, Amazon 9.99

[Cheryl · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fortunately my allergy to cat fur has never cost me a job! Otherwise I do empathize with poor Robert. What a ridiculous + exciting + adorable story. Well worth finding if you're lucky enough to have access to a library that hasn't yet culled it.

[Robert Davis · Rating 4 out of 5]

First read this almost 40 years ago... I liked this book as an young boy because Robert was my name too. I especially liked to see everyone and everything go sailing through the air whenever Robert the horse sniffed a rose and sneezed. Children's books can be a lot more fun than adult books.

[Juliette · Rating 5 out of 5]

my favourite book from my childhood and it was so lovely and funny to revisit this again❤

[Tamera Fleming · Rating 5 out of 5]

1) Book Summary: Is about a horse and it was his birthday, everybody came out to celebrate with him and when it was time for him to blow out the cake he had to sneeze. The sneeze was so bad that they kicked him off the farm and he had to move to the city and find a job. Everywhere he went he got fired because of his sneezing. He became a police horse and saved the day by sneezing at the robbers who robbed the bank.

2) Grade level, interest level, lexile : preschool-2nd grade, interest level is 3-7 years old, and the lexile is 100l

3) Appropriate classroom use (subject area) : I was use during reading block free time

4) Individual students who might benefit from reading: Any child can benefit from this book especially a child with really bad allgeries.

5) Small group use (literary circles) : I could ask key details about what causing the sneezing and the jobs the horse got.

6) Whole class use (read aloud) : I could do popcorn reading and let each child read a page aloud.

7) Related books in genre/subject or content area : If I Ran The Horse Show, and A Fish Out The Water

8) Multimedia connections (audio book, movie) available: Hardcover, Paperback

[Ryane · Rating 5 out of 5]

Robert the Rose Horse is my childhood favorite, by far! It tells a story about a horse with allergies who struggles to hold a job because his sneezes tend to blow everything up in the air. I just love this story and have read it a million times as a child. Now, I read it to my daughter who also loves it! Personally, this is a great book that teaches many valuable lesson. I'd recommend it to anyone with kids. It does have a page or two with bank robbers who have guns, but Robert (a police horse) sneezes on them. It's simply a great book written in a time where guns were a somewhat non-issue. A time when parents got play guns for their kids without batting an eye, or worrying about mass shootings. Enjoy the book!

[Fjóla · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good early reader about the sympathetic Robert the Rose Horse. My five year old is sensitive, so I was watching him very carefully for reactions to the harsher elements of the story: separation from your parents, loosing your nice job, coming across bad guy robbers, etc. He held it together although I could tell he was touched by the story. We just made sure to flip the pages quick enough to discover the good outcomes. All in all a good, eventful story with a happy ending. It's a bit long for a beginner reader, but there's plenty of repetition and overall it's an easy read. It's a memorable story to read again at some point.

[Naomi · Rating 4 out of 5]

My 5 year old daughter really likes this book. I purchased it at a library discard sale in 1999 or so and my eldest daughter loved me to read it to her as well (she was 3 at the time). I kept it when she outgrew it even though it has some dirty pages, though none are torn, and I am glad it is getting more use with my youngest daughter. She loves to hear about Robert's sneezing and won't let me read "kerchoo" because she has to do that part. She likes that he finds a job he can do and saves the day from the robbers.

[The Brothers · Rating 4 out of 5]

A charming story of a horse who discovers he is violently allergic to roses - sneezing so hard every time he's around them he flattens everything and everyone around him. He has to move away from the country to get away from the roses. Unfortunately, he keeps coming across roses in the city and ends up losing his job because of it. But one day, he uses his allergy to roses to thwart a bank robbery.

Fun, old-fashiony illustrations.

[Tommy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Danny's the one who always requests this one. Another one that has been read to rags (partly because Mom bought it used to start out with). Tommy likes to point out small details in the illustrations.

[Muse Here · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a really cute story. The horse is lovable and sweet and the allergic sneeze is enjoyable. We've read this quite a few times. It shares a shelf with the Syd Hoff books (right where it belongs, imo).

[Suzanne · Rating 4 out of 5]

FUN!! An allergic horse who saves the day! One of my kids favorites.

[Danny · Rating 5 out of 5]

Danny's the one who always requests this one. Another one that has been read to rags (partly because Mom bought it used to start out with).

[Danette · Rating 3 out of 5]

12/26/17 Read with Naomi & Julia.

[Jessie Drew · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cute illustrations and story!

[Bailey Marissa · Rating 3 out of 5]

A short story about a horse trying to find a job due to his rose allergy.

[Melki · Rating 4 out of 5]

Robert's unique allergy leads him to a series of different jobs, until he finally finds his perfect niche.

Great artwork by P D Eastman!

[Lori · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sweet ,horsey story.

[Bronwyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was pretty cute. My son loved the kerchoos.

[Dan Atack · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just an all time classic. Couldn’t put it down from start to finish and then reread it. Who would have thought all he really needed was a massive sneeze?

[Joshua Rolph · Rating 5 out of 5]

The first book I remember reading cover to cover

[Alicia Singleton · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is about a horse that goes out to find work in the city because he was terribly allergic to the roses at the farm he lived at. When he goes to the city he finds work as many different things, but they were not working out. He eventually becomes a police horse and did he was very good at his job. One day he saw three men trying to rob a bank. Quickly thinking, Robert sniffs a rose from a little girl head, which made him let out a great big sneeze, which made the bank robber fall down flat. Robert had saved the day. The teaching lesson in this book is to accept your flaws no matter what they are because they can become your biggest strength. This is a beginner reader book, so I would recommend this to children between the grades: kindergarten and second grade, because the words in the book range from these age groups for complication.

Heilbroner, J., Eastman, P. D.(1962). Robert the rose horse. New York: Beginner Books.

[Chak · Rating 3 out of 5]

Because this was my favorite book when I was a very little girl, I rushed out and ordered this book for my son. Because I ordered it online, I didn't page through it, which is always a good idea when buying a children's book. While reading the book to my son for the first time, I realized that while the story is entertaining (about an allergic horse whose sneezes cause repeated chaos and exile and eventually redemption and a cure), it does contain a scene with bankrobbers, guns and shooting. Apparently, that was just fine thirty plus years ago, but it wasn't okay for my two year old. I still think it's a good kid's book, but my advice for parents who are sensitive to weapons and violence in a book, is to either do a little editing before you read the book or wait for a more appropriate age (though I think 7 or 8 year olds would be bored by this book).

[April · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was cute. It is about a horse with an allergy to roses who tried to find work where it won't be a problem if he sneezes. I liked the horse trying hard to find work and he was a very agreeable character, but it bugged me that at the end of the book he has "sneezed out" his sneezes and is no longer allergic to roses. I feel like if someone reads this to a kid with allergies they are going to have a ton of questions about why their allergies don't just go away and that probably wasn't a big deal when this was written, but now there are so many kids with all kinds of allergies that it may want to be a consideration before the book is selected to be read.

[Dominique Giordano · Rating 3 out of 5]

Robert the Rose Horse is on my favorites list because of the persistence and determination of the horse to find somewhere where he belonged. I can imagine the students laughing at the horse sneezing so largely. Considered fiction, it contains the element of animals as the main characters. Designed for K-2 grade, it can be enjoyed as a read aloud or individual reading.

In the reading classroom, teachers could use this book to teach children fluency, to read the dialogue as if the character was speaking out loud. Demonstrating this book would be a lot of fun with the major sneezes and all.

[Michael E. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another of my childhood favorites, and in fact the copy we have is one with an inscription from my Mother as a gift to me way back in time. This book was also one of the favorites of my son, Kevin, as he loved the "Kerchooo" parts. Today, my two-year-old granddaughter got to listen to it and look at the pictures. I think she liked the cameo appearances of dogs and cats here and there, but did comment occasionally on the "horse". We'll see if she requests it again in the future.

[Suzanne Lorraine Kunz Williams · Rating 3 out of 5]

A darling story about a horse who has one thing that is very different from most other horses. And how this one issue bring hardship to his life. But how this issue also is able to help a lot of others. We all have things about ourselves that are different from other people. May we use those gifts to the best of our ability to serve and bring joy to others.

Sometimes just sharing how we deal with setbacks can bring encouragement and peace to others.

[Esmoi · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very silly story about a horse who has a troublesome rose allergy. The horse ends up disarming a group of bank robbers with his violent sneezes. This is not a particularly awesome story from my perspective, but I still gave it five stars because it has been an instant favorite of every child to whom I've read it.

[Susan · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one came up on my Goodreads recommendations list. I remembered really enjoying the book as a child. Times have changed and my tastes have too. It's still a cute story, though I felt people were mean to Robert for firing him over something he had no control over, and something that could have been accommodated with even a little bit of effort.