Elska

By Catherine Hapka

Illustrated by Ruth Sanderson

Reading the Horse Diaries series made me want a horse so bad. Okay, reading any books about horses makes me want a horse. Who wouldn’t want one? Horses can gallop through woods and you don’t have to worry about scratching the paint off of your car. They can pull things. You can enter your horse in shows. You’ll have fun exercising. Yeah, you do have to deal with the poop, but that’s better than air pollution. Of course, my mom still won’t let me have one. Something about not needing one. Oh well. A girl can dream, right?

Short Snippet from Elska:

“A few days after my foaling, the rest of the herd left my birth meadow. I kept pace easily, sometimes walking or trotting and sometimes tölting with Tappi. We forded a fast, cold, shallow river that tumbled down from the mountains in a series of waterfalls. Then we climbed a steep, mossy hill and found ourselves overlooking a green valley. A herd of smaller creatures dotted the slopes of the valley and nibbled at the grass. They were white, grey, black, and brown-almost as many colors as there were in my herd. My mother told me that such creatures were known as sheep.

“They share our summer grazing lands,” she told me. “In autumn, the men come and round them up, along with us.”

I didn’t understand all of what she told me. “Summer”, “autumn” and “men” meant nothing to me. But I didn’t let them worry me. Like the way my legs worked, I figured these things would become clear in time.”

Living as a Horse

Elska is the first book in an amazing series called Horse Diaries. The book is about an Icelandic horse named Elska. She is born into a herd that belongs to Vikings and learns about the world around her. She soon gets traded to a new Viking family and has to leave Amma, her favorite human. Elska tries to escape many times, but it seems like she will have to stay there forever.

What’s the Message?

I think that the message of Elska is that sometimes, life just doesn’t go the way you want it to and you have to learn to live with it. Elska doesn’t really like this new owner, and just wants to go back to her old herd. However, she has to stay if she wants Amma to be safe. Also, the message of a lot of the Horse Diaries is to treat your horse nicely and remember that they are living things too.

Where to find Elska

I found Elska at my local library, and you can also find this book on Amazon.

Kyryi’s Conclusion:

In Elska, she’s very fast. I give this book

Five out of Five mph

(Please note that Elska is much faster than that. The horse, not the book.) This book is clean and funny, and has a section in the back of the book where you can learn more about Icelandic horses. I suggest ages seven to twelve, because this book is a little short. If you have horse fans in your house, definitely read this book.