Eh. An interesting history of a Arabian bred in Poland on the eve of World War II. I hadn't known about the horse, and I'm glad I now do. However, the fairy tale the author made out of Witez's birth and early upbringing, particularly when the book starts with her going to Poland and talking to people who actually knew what happened, is a disservice to the book and to the Poles who lived through that time. I have no idea if any of her facts are accurate; I know that she made several scenes up out of whole cloth, because no one involved was still alive when she was looking for info (or would have talked about it beforehand). The whole thing with the Gypsy grandmother and sister, for instance - she made it so that they knew what would happen, but they never admitted it to Stasik, and I can't imagine that anyone else would have known about it either. At least, not anyone who was able to pass it on to her. Which means the first half or three-quarters of the book, until Witez II fell into American hands, is pretty much fiction on a thin skeleton of facts - a great horse story, but not accurate, not a good biography. And then he was imported to America - and the book abruptly becomes a simple recounting of facts, aside from a few mentions that *Witez II really wanted a home and a family (of humans)". My impression is that once she was constrained to facts (because the people she would be writing about could read her book!), she ran out of steam. Glad I read the book, I'll keep an eye out for more info on the horse, I won't be rereading this. I'd rather read Marguerite Henry, if I want fictionalized horse stories. ( )

One of my favorite books as a horse-crazy kid. Told the story of Witez II a Polish arabian who lived through WWII and then came to the United States and (I believed) was a triumph in the show ring and as a sire. ( )