The Horsecatcher (Bison Book)

By Mari Sandoz

Book Overview

Praised for swift action and beauty of language, The Horsecatcher is Mari Sandoz's first novel about the Indians she knew so well. Without ever leaving the world of a Cheyenne tribe in the 1830s, she creates a youthful protagonist many readers will recognize in themselves. Young Elk is expected to be a warrior, but killing even an enemy sickens him. He would rather catch and tame the mustangs that run in herds. Sandoz makes it clear that his determination to be a horsecatcher will require a moral and physical courage equal to that of any warrior. And if he must earn the right to live as he wishes, he must also draw closer to family and community.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0803291604
• ISBN13: 9780803291607
• Release Date: September 1986
• Publisher: Bison Books
• Length: 192 Pages
• Weight: 0.50 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.3" x 8.0"
• Age Range: 9 to 12 years
• Grade Range: Grades 4 to 7

Customer Reviews

Great art, depicting humanity's struggle to become human.

Her lifelong research, study, and familiarity with the culture of the plains indians, along with her own challenging life experiences in a pioneer family, provide Mari Sandoz with an authentic setting for the universal story of the individual search for self. Issues of morality, personal esteem, responsibility, respect for authority, self-reliance, et cetera, arise as naturally for Young Elk, as for any teenager, any time, any where. This story of a youthful misfit amoung the Cheyenne a hundred and fifty years ago has special relevance for global peacemaking today. It should be a world classic of juvenile fiction. And more, for it is extremely thought-provoking for the adult reader.