Regretfully, she leaves her sheltered wood and goes out into the world to seek her kind, or word of their fate. It is the tale of a beautiful, immortal creature – less like a horse with a horn on its head than you would think – who, one day, realizes that she may be the last of her kind. I wish I could have witnessed the impact it made when it first came out in 1968. Both are tales about a farewell to a kind of magic in the world, and both are told with elegance and eloquence. I don’t mind acknowledging a kinship between them. The last time a single story made me cry so much in proportion to its length, it was Tolkien’s Smith of Wootton Major. And since the story itself is very moving, I floated through this book on a sea-swell of emotion. As one who appreciates the writer’s craft, I am moved by excellence when I see it. In fact, it is a book to be loved, revisited, shared, and savored in the mouth like a favorite poem read aloud, even if you read without moving your lips. This is a book adults may appreciate on a level only an exceptional 12-year-old can grasp. It would be a shame if adults reading this review noted the “12+” age recommendation and decided this book wasn’t for them.
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