The first full-length book told from a horse's viewpoint is a heartbreaking tale of the cruelties, both malicious and inadvertent, that animals suffer at the hands of humans. It's also a book of sensuous writing which can take the reader from the beauty of a spring country evening to the coal-coated world of Victorian London. In between there are moments of real excitement.

Anna Sewell was a devout Quaker, and there is a spare Quaker ethic running through the novel, encouraging the value of hard work without complaint, as well as a humble countenance. She was also crippled and in ill heath, and her own horse and carriage served as her legs. A friend was so impressed with the wordless bond between Sewell and her horse that she passed on an early animal rights essay to her, which Sewell used as a source of inspiration in writing this book.

This book eventually influenced the abolition of the cruel bearing rein, kicked off the animal-rights movement, and forced more humane treatment of London's human cabbies.

While the book is beloved by animal-loving children around the world, some 21st-century children may find the gentle sermons on the humane treatment of animals, as well as Beauty's loyal attitude to even the most cruel human, a bit out of date. But most kids will feel like one ten-year-old, who whispered, "I learned what it feels like to be an animal ... and I cried."