by Moe Zilla

Created on: April 04, 2010

It's one of Jan Brett's rarest books. At the age of 32, when she was just starting career, she wrote "Fritz and the Beautiful Horses". Writing and illustrating children's books had been a lifelong dream of hers, and there's even a picture of the hopeful author on the book's inside back jacket. Since she was very young she'd drawn ambitious "intricate, decorative borders on all of my pictures," according to

one interview. Brett added that artistically the border pictures felt very important to her - but in her first books her editor warned against them, saying "we don't make pretty little books here."

He'd changed his mind when he saw her illustrations for her second book, and it launched a distinctive style which she continued over the next three decades, through lavishly illustrated fairy tales like "Ginberbread Baby" and "Trouble with Trolls." This adds a strange novelty to her 1981 book, "Fritz and the Beautiful Horses." It's one of her only books where Jan Brett uses "unadorned" illustrations - just a simple picture showing the events of her story, without any "side pictures" included in their margins! But even without the fancy frames, her illustrations still add a sense of wonder.

This picture book deliver something that a lot of children will enjoy - beautiful illustrations and a story about horses. On the book's first page, Brett introduces a walled city known for its beautiful horses - "magnificent jumpers, splendid chargers, and elegant parade horses." It's fun to think of this as a story by a grown-up little girl, realizing a childhood dream to write and illustrate a story about horses. Brett turns her sympathies to one of the not-beautiful horses - "tangled mane, whiskers on his muzzle" - who watches the elegant carriages carrying lovely ladies drawn by horses with braided manes and tails. And he feels sorry for the children, since the proud horses they're riding on insist on prancing and leaping.

"When I was young I hated surprise endings in books," Brett confessed in her PBS interview. And within a few pages it's obvious where her story is headed. Fritz races after the crowd of children, but is mocked by the citizens of the walled city.  Brett contributes a touching drawing of the sad horse - eyes closed, muzzle twisted in a frown - as the magnificent gentlemen lead the children away.

But don't worry, the scruffy horse gets a chance to redeem himself, and the story finds its way to satisfying happy ending. The stone bridge develops a dangerous crack, and the children's horses are stranded on one side of the river, opposite their parents. Their magnificent horses are too vain to brave the river under the bridge, but Fritz isn't. "Hurray for the sure-footed pony!" cries one of the lovely ladies

"How kind and dependable he is..."

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