Review: Fine, Fun, Fantasy for the Whole Family
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 01 18, 2013
"A 13th Tail" by Daniel Kelley is interesting because it is so different from pretty much any other book I've read. Up front the author admits he has a phobia about the number 13. Consequently he faces his phobia head on by inserting 13 "things" 13 times into this book. He throws out a challenge to the reader to identify as many of those "13's" as possible. I only found 3 of them.First, let me say it is not easy locating the 13's, because they are very well hidden within the text. Second, even if they were easy to find, the storyline captures your attention so you just aren't paying attention to finding the 13's. (That's my story, and I'm sticking to it!)Having gotten that taken care of, I can move on and tell you this was really a nice little fairy tale story about a young horse on a global trek to find the "greener pastures" he's always heard the older horses talking about. He has found many places he thought were greener pastures, but come autumn they always turned brown, so he would move on until he found another green pasture.When he gets to the greener pastures in this story, everything is just so perfect he is convinced he has finally found it. Imagine his amazement, when he awoke one fall morning to realize the grass was turning brown! He was very sad; he didn't want to leave this place, because he really had enjoyed himself here. The other animals were all very friendly, the humans were kind and took good care of him, and he was positive the grass really was the greener pastures he sought.While he is looking downtrodden and discouraged, an older horse asks him what was wrong. When the older horse heard his tale, he started laughing! He told the younger horse that "greener pastures" is just an expression, and is something that is inside you, not something you will find externally.This story holds a very good lesson for young and old alike. Many, many adults continue to leave their jobs, their marriages, their families, their homes, always looking for greener pastures. Younger people as well hear the clarion call of greener pastures and move on in search of something they will only find if they look inside themselves. This is really quite an excellent story, and would be a great and thoughtful gift for any child on your gift-giving list. With any luck, their parents may read it, too.