BORN TO RIDE

In O’Bannon’s illustrated children’s book, a young girl prepares her horse to compete at an equestrian championship.

Rae, a young Black girl, wakes up excited at the prospect of entering her first ever equestrian competition: the Berkshire Equestrian Championship. She and her dad select the horse she’ll ride: Jelly Bean, a genial bay with white blaze. Rae takes Jelly Bean for a gallop around the farm, reads to him, feeds him an apple, then encourages him into the transport trailer, grooms his coat, and rides him cleanly through the course over multiple days, winning first prize. O’Bannon tells Rae’s story in straightforward, non-rhyming text, presented in a large, easy-to-read typeface against blank pastel backdrops (with a recurring horseshoe headpiece); the text alternates with Faiz’s full-page pencil illustrations. The images combine a scribbly coloring technique that’s suitably evocative of primary school drawings with nuanced artistic flourishes, such as the inclusion of soft-toy horses shown on the floor of Rae’s bedroom or the impressionistic trees and hay on later pages. Over the course of the book, Rae is effectively presented as a loving, cheerful protagonist who enjoys Dad’s company and treats Jelly Bean as a friend, as well as a steed: “Rae gently encourages him to walk into the trailer, showing him that everything is safe.” The youngster’s appreciation of ordinary, everyday moments is endearing, and, with this in mind, it might have been an interesting plot turn for her not to have won the competition. Still, young readers are sure to find much to enjoy in these pages.

A sweet and sunny slice-of-life story about childhood contentment.