Numerous novels have been written about the horrors of war, but War Horse is indeed a unique tale. The main character of this children’s book written by Michael Morpurgo is a young horse named Joey. The story sadly begins with Joey being taken away from his mother and sold to Ted Narracott, a drunken farmer with financial problems. Albert, the farmer’s son, soon grows very fond of the colt and takes good care of him. Albert is heartbroken when his father, due to his desperate need of money, sells Joey to an army officer who wants to turn the animal into a war horse.
While in the military, Joey becomes good friends with another horse named Topthorn, and they are shipped to France to join the fighting during World War I. There, they see the death and suffering of soldiers, and take part in battles. However, the horses are captured by the Germans who make them pull carts full of wounded soldiers. The German soldiers respect Joey and Topthorn because they save many soldiers’ lives. Shortly, the Germans move their hospital to another battlefield and give the horses to an old man and his granddaughter, whose name is Emilie. Just as Albert adored Joey, so does Emilie, but when another group of German soldiers sees the two horses, they seize them and use them to pull heavy military equipment. Forced to work extremely hard, the horses become thin and weak, and Topthorn dies from exhaustion.
Saddene by his beloved friend’s death, alone, and terrified by a tank, Joey accidentally runs into some barbed wire and gets badly injured. A German soldier and a British soldier come to help free Joey and toss a coin to see who will keep him. The English soldier wins and takes the horse to the animal hospital at which, coincidentally, Albert works.
