YOUR HORSE

Equine secret-keeping proves a powerful lure in Klassen’s latest in his board-book series, following Your Truck (2026).

As this tale opens, an unseen narrator gives young readers the gift of a horse. “It is yours to have.” Little ones can select the color for themselves (“It could be a black horse. Or a white one”), though the narrator settles on just brown “for now.” And while this horse can run and jump, its true value lies in how well it will keep the readers’ secrets. On a wordless two-page spread, children are encouraged to whisper, or simply think, their secrets to the horse, which fills those pages. Once they are done, it will never tell. “Never ever ever.” But now the day is done, and everyone can go to sleep and think of what to do with the horse tomorrow. Klassen diverges slightly from his usual format with this title, drawing the horse into a far more personal relationship with its young owners. It proves itself a stolid pal, capable of the typical Klassen stoicism, but also a trusted figure. As such, riding this horse proves less interesting than baring one’s soul to it. Indeed, Klassen has tapped into one of the truest reasons humans wish to have horses at all.

A stalwart companion on the page, and a trusted friend always; prepare for much secret-keeping to occur.