A wonderful classic children's novel that teaches important values and ideas, like kindness to animals, honesty, empathy, sobriety, why it's smart to follow safety rules, the value of weekends off for the health and happiness of people and animals alike, the harm that ignorance can do, and many more.

The main dated aspects of the story are the snake oil-type medical "knowledge" depicted, including bloodletting, and the way voting in London is described as a men-only activity.

The book's first-person perspective from Black Beauty's point of view helps children understand that animals are like us, and have feelings and thoughts that matter, even though they can't speak to us with words. Beauty explains to readers that if animals misbehave, it's usually because they were mistreated by humans, and the best way to train them to behave is with kindness and patience.

Beauty is a very likeable and sympathetic main character who can encourage a good attitude towards animals in any reader, young or old. 4.5/5 stars.

I also highly recommend the 1994 live action movie based on this book, which is a beautiful and faithful adaptation that I think Anna Sewell would approve of.

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