The Chronic-WHAT?!-cles of Narnia continues with this lovely entry taking place… not in Narnia. Featuring such favored elements of children’s literature as horse theft, kidnapping, running away, doing battle, and of course slavery.
The Horse and His Boy
Author: C.S. Lewis
Pages: 224
Format: Paperback
Published: September 6, 1954
Publisher: HarperCollins
View on Goodreads
Date Completed: June 14, 2024
My rating: 
Thoughts
Shasta is a young boy and the presumed son of a fisherman in the land of Calormen. Except that he isn’t the fisherman’s son. This Shasta finds out as he overhears his “father” making a deal to sell Shasta into slavery. Not awesome.
Shasta meets a talking horse from Narnia named Bree and together they flee Calormen and head toward north to Narnia. Along the way they meet Aravis, a young Calormene noblewoman, who is fleeing arranged marriage on her own talking horse, Hwin.
Together, they travel through Tashbaan, which is a pretty dangerous place. And of course they end up separated. But this is where the story gets interesting. Shasta is mistaken for Prince Corin of Archenland and is taken to meet King Edmund and Queen Susan of Narnia (placing this chronologically during The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe). Here we learn that Prince Rabadash of Calormen wants to marry Susan against her will. What is it with these people?
Basically, Shasta’s true identity is revealed, Rabadash is defeated in a humorous way by Aslan, and Shasta and Aravis live happily ever after (presumably).
This is a really great children’s story in my opinion and one of my favorites in the Narnia-verse so far. It has a few elements from previous books, but it’s really the first to explore the lands outside of Narnia. And, all kidding aside, it really does have everything you’d want in a children’s story.
I gave this one 4 out of 5 stars and it earned every one of them. Why not 5 stars, you ask? I’m not sure… I mean, it didn’t knock my socks off and I’m not super into children’s, middle grade, or young adult fare. So probably that’s why.
