Appaloosy Books (A REVIEW)

Horses are amazing creatures that attract the attention of both children and adults, so to find this Mattie Richardson's Horses in History Series is so cool. I love a good story that includes horses in any way, and my children do too, so I was excited to give these books from Author Mattie Richardson/Appaloosy Books a try! I was very impressed with how history could come alive through the eyes of a horse. What an awesome way to teach children about important parts of history!

Four books in the Appaloosy Books horse history series.

For this review, we received all four books in the series (signed by the author), as well as a digital copy of the enrichment guide for one of the books (which I'll talk about later). The books are softcover with beautiful hand-drawn covers. Physically, they are about the size of a typical chapter book for kids. Their length varies, but all are less than 150 pages in length. We also received a bookmark!

A glimpse of the inside of the book, and the bookmark we received as a fun little token.

These books are fun to read and make me want to go out and start riding horses, or at least learn more about them. I feel like I was able to understand a little more about the true nature of horses, some of which I've seen in my few interactions with them. So, not only are these books good for learning history, I think they could be a great way to learn about horses too! Great for any horse unit study as well.

Each book in the series has a focus on some point in history. We'll start with Appaloosy. This is the book we started with because I assumed it was the first, but upon looking more at all the books I don't think they have any particular order, and could probably be read stand-alone. Appaloosy is the story of an Appaloosa horse who finds himself in the middle of a battle as the Native Americans (Nez Perce tribe) are fighting the white man for their land. He finds some humans he likes, and some humans he really doesn't like. He finds hope in a young girl named Faith.

Book: Appaloosy by Mattie Richardson ~Takes place in the Nez Perce tribe

The next book Day and Night takes place during the Civil War. It's a story through the eyes of Tucker (A horse in the U.S. Infantry) and Shiloh ( a horse in the Confederate volunteer Cavalry). I have not personally read this one, but I am excited to see what all the talk is about. This book is praised for its historical accuracy. There is a video book trailer and more information at the Appaloosy books website.

Book: Day and Night by Mattie Richardson~Takes place during the civil war

The book Golden Sunrise is about a Palomino raised in Northern Texas and travels with her owner to fight battles in the Famous Fort Alamo against Mexican forces. I did not read this book yet either, but this is a part of history I don't know much about, so I'm excited to get to it.

Book: Golden Sunrise by Mattie Richardson ~Battle of Fort Alamo

The book Dusty's Trail is the story of the Pony Express mail delivery system and the horses and their owners who risked their lives each day. Another part of history I'm excited to learn about when I read this one with my kids.

Book: Dusty's Trail by Mattie Richardson ~The Pony Express mail system

Who read these books in our house? We chose read them aloud together, so we are still working through them. I have been reading them to my boys ages 8 and 11, and these books are really geared toward that age. They've enjoyed the horse aspect, and listening to the story. I think even kids a little younger and older could enjoy them as well. I know I am excited to finish them now.

Day and Night Enrichment guide available on Amazon

There is also an enrichment guide to go along with the book Day and Night that digs deeper into the Civil War. We did not get a chance to use this yet, but it looks packed with so much good stuff. When we get to reading the Day and Night book I am planning to use it. Especially since we are studying American History this year.

If you'd like to see what the other crew review members had to say about these books you can click on the image below.