Terrible Horses: A Story of Sibling Conflict and Companionship

PreS-Gr 2–This book poignantly explores sibling relationships—where many children first develop the complicated and difficult tools for interacting with their peers—as a younger brother/narrator shares how his “sister is cooler than” him. He wants to have her friends and her things, but Antrobus uses parallelism well to state “she wants her friends to be her friends,” and this includes her things. The push and pull of their relationship is physical, too, and mixed media illustrates the frenetic energy exchanged on one spread: the sister looms over her brother in height, a brown arm shaking him as he pulls on her black braid; vicious spikes of color fly out behind the protagonist, indicating movement with the words “push” and “pull” sidling off the page. After each fight, the brother retreats to his room to write and draw a world where there are terrible horses and he is the only pony. The terrible horses, an extended metaphor for his life, have “ghastly galloping” and “nagging neighing,” as they thunder through his room with cold eyes. The literary language and art are wondrous. When his sister reads his book, sparks of understanding and hope begin between them. Regulating emotions is difficult, even for only children, and this is a great story to start discussions on big feelings. The brother wears hearing aids.