After reading Elizabeth Goudge’s “The Linnets and Valerians,” we were excited to try her highly recommended children’s book “The Little White Horse.” Or, as some children will correct you every time you say “Horse”: “Little White UNICORN” based on the cover art of a magnificent old volume we got through the library.
Many people claim to enjoy “The Little White Horse” more than “The Linnets and Valerians.” The two books, although they have marked similarities, are quite different. Where “The Linnets and Valerians” has a realism to it, punctuated by fantastical episodes of magic, “The Little White Horse” brings the reader into a different kind of realm entirely, one with an unmistakably mythical and mysterious quality of otherworldliness.
It’s undoubtedly an enchanting fairytale. It also has uncanny similarities to the themes of Astrid Lindgren’s “Mio My Son,” but that’s another discussion for another day. What many readers comment on positively is the fact that the children—in this story the isolated Maria Merryweather and her seemingly magical companion, the shepherd boy Robin—take an active and independent role in the story.
They venture where adults dare not and accomplish feats of restoration that the adults, calcified in their vices, are incapable of. This kind of story can have an innocuously intoxicating effect on children. What could be better than total autonomy and complete lack of adult supervision? Of course, not in reality, as children crave stability and appropriate authority. But in the world of story, imagining a world of unfettered independence delights as nothing else can.
There’s loads more that could be said about “The Little White Horse,” its archetypal fairytale tropes, its charm, and its wholesome qualities. Suffice it to say, this is a solid pick for a family read-aloud with a wide age range. Elizabeth Goudge does not disappoint.
Addressing the criticism of Goudge’s other work, “The Linnets and Valerians,” is it true to say that the children do not take an active role? I would argue, they are the catalyst for all the action of the story simply by being children. The world of their bachelor uncle and his manservant, the widowed wealthy woman, and the childless villains into which the children step is fundamentally altered by their presence.
Likewise, despite it’s stark differences in the structure of the story, some of the most moving plot developments of “The Little White Horse” occur by the influence of the children’s presence. A land without children is one in which adults grow stagnant and entrenched. Encountering the unsettling, sometimes chaotic energy of children, filled with life and hope, can be what prompts change that may have seemed impossible.
