Who is Ruth’s new friend?

I love this story, Ruth and the Blue Horse by Charles Ashton because it encompasses the two themes I love most, which are mystery and drama — but that’s mainly because I’m a drama queen.

The story is about a girl called Ruth who moves with her family from a farm to a country house. It’s all about her moving on from her past life where they had many animals to their new life which is a lot more compact with a lot less animals. It shows how she copes with this process which is part of growing up; so you could say it’s about one of the lessons of growing up.

Here comes the mysterious part its the blue horse. This horse runs through the story as a friend of Ruth’s but it symbolises the friendships we have in life that have big impact on our lives but those friendships we lose over time because we move on with our lives. Sure we keep in touch but there is never that connection that you once had with that person.

The character of Ruth is not like the usual characters you get in a children’s book. She is a lot more dreamy and is a care-free kind of a teenager. This has allowed the author to expand her readership because her character appealed to me as a young adult and I think would appeal to teenagers too.

I love the ending because she keeps the blue horse a mystery, for example: where is he from? If he is real or is just a figment of Ruth’s imagination? This allows for your imagination to run wild with ideas. This is a technique which I think is very effective because sometimes when you reveal the mystery it ruins the story and that lingering thought in the back of your mind goes away. This ending is the greatest wondering cliffhanger.

I liked the illustrations which were done by Emma Chichester Clark because they were black and white and beautiful but I think they could have done with showing a bit more of the foreground or background. I think what could have been added to the story was more description of the setting since it’s in the countryside and I guess I’m just a sucker for  descriptions of picturesque scenery. Overall it was a great chiildrens book that made me question so many things in life. I would say its a book for all ages who want a quick but beautiful read!