Mustang: Wild Spirit of the West - Marguerite Henry

Mustang: Wild Spirit of the West
Marguerite Henry
Aladdin Publishing
Printing Date: 1992
978-0689716010

The Amazon.com product description:

Horses were in Annie Bronn's blood. For as long as she could remember, she had been fascinated by the spirited wild mustangs that roamed free throughout the West. So when greedy cattlemen started to round up the mustangs for slaughter, Annie knew it was up to her to save the breed.
The true story of Wild Horse Annie's crusade to save the mustangs is inspiring. Readers will cheer her on, all the way to the White House, in her struggle to preserve these beautiful creatures from extinction. 

 I've enjoyed Marguerite Henry's books from Misty of Chincoteague on. I think I've read every one of them. So, they're from the 1950's and 1960's, but they're still good reads for everyone from nine years to ninety-nine years of age.

What inspired this particular re-read was seeing the new book Wild Horse Annie, which is a biography of the main character of this book. I'd thought so, and wanted to double-check my memory before reading the new one.

One thing that makes this book a bit different from Marguerite Henry's other ones is the illustrator. Most of the books were illustrated by Wesley Dennis, but Robert Lougheed has done a wonderful job on Mustang: Wild Spirit of the West. All the illustrations are black and white, but they're a mix of paintings and line art sketches.

Although, the core of the book is the true story of Annie Bronn, I was surprised when I read the new biography of how much of the story had been changed. Mostly to make the characters and the course of events more clear and understandable for younger readers. The book also ends on much more of a high point.

This is definitely a good read for anyone who's horse-crazy, kid or adult.