Book 22: The Horse and His Boy

The Horse and His Boy by C. S. Lewis is the third story in the Chronicles of Narnia series and is set during the reign of King Peter, Queen Susan, King Edmund, and Queen Lucy.  The story begins in Calorman, south of Narnia, with a young boy named Shasta who has worked his whole life for a fisherman.  One day, a nobleman stops at their home for the night and asks to buy the boy.  Shasta overhears the fisherman explain how he found the boy as an infant, and the two men begin bargaining over a price.  The boy slips out to the stable and wonders aloud what type of master the nobleman would be until suddenly he unexpectedly receives an answer from Bree, the nobleman's horse.  Bree is a Narnian born talking horse, who wishes more than anything to escape Calorman and return home, so the pair agree to make their escape together that very night.  As they journey north one night they meet Avaris, a young Calorman girl running away to escape marrying an old man, and Hwin, a Narnian mare who like Bree was captured at a young age and brought to Calorman.  The four continue on together until they suddenly become separated in the city of Tashbaan when Shasta is mistaken by the visiting party of King Edmund to be young Prince Corin of Archenland.  The encounter proves useful as Shasta learns how to cross the great desert beyond the city and Avaris overhears the plans of Prince Rabadash to conquer Archenland and retrieve the Queen Susan from Narnia to be his bride.  The four must move quickly to warn King Lune of Archenland before the Calorman army launches its surprise attack; but when Avaris is wounded and the horses exhausted, Shasta must continue alone on foot.

The Horse and His Boy is one of the less popular books in the Narnia series, but it is still an amazing story and well worth reading again and again.  I highly recommend it for ages 8 and up.