War Horse By Michael Morpurgo

     The book I read was called War Horse. The author of this book is Michael Morpurgo. The topic of this book is Joey the horse, who is becoming a war horse as a new war arrives. I chose this book because the book had a appealing cover to it. I also had watched the movie and the movie was good. In this book the point of view is 1st person, Joey.    
     Joey a young colt was being put up for auction by his owner. After Alberts father brought the new,y win horse home his son ,Albert, was ecstatic. He told his father that he was going to do everything for this horse including his training and feeding. Joey was not to start training until he was a good age so he could develop his strength and stamina. Alberta's dad had started a bet with his neighbor that he would be able to have to horse pulling a plow in a weeks time. He ended up winning the bet after hard work and dedication from Albert and Joey. While Albert was away ringing bells in the town his dad was desperate for cash to keep current on his mortgage. With the war oncoming they needed horses to go over seas and help fight the battle. His dad was about to take away Alberts best friend, Joey. Alberts father was paid 30 pounds for Joey. Joey quickly began his training and was assigned as Captain Nicholls' horse. Although he would train with another person due to Caption was busy. After training they boarded the boat to go to France to fight the war. In the first battle Captain Nicholls was killed. His major assigned a new rider to Joey. His name was Trooper Warren. In the next battle all the troopers were killed and the Major and Trooper Warren were captured and Joey and TopThorn were taken to the medical area. For the next year the two horses were used for transporting the injured and dead to the medical hospital. After they were done with their services the two horses were taken to the nearby farm as payment to the farmer and granddaughter for the use of their land and food. For six months Joey was happy because he was back doing what he was originally trained for, farming. After that the Germans came through and took the two horses from the farmer and his granddaughter to help haul the cannons and wagons. They were used for that for most of the rest of the war. In that time the conditions were very bad with the hot the cold the wet and snow which caused severe health problems to most of the horses. With these conditions TopThorn got very sick and ended up dying. Joey was cut loose from the wagon and during a storm he got caught in barb wire. When he was untangled and brought back to the medical area he later met up with his Albert. To find out what later happened you need to ad the book.
     There were a couple things that I liked about the book. One was that Albert and Joey met back up at the end. Another is tithe close bond between TopThorn and Joey. There was nothing about the book that I did not like. I would highly recommend his book to a friend that either liked to read about war or liked horses. This book is age appropriate for the ages of 12+.