Vild review

The book’s text works in harmony with the illustrations. The text is often understated and emotions are conveyed through the colour scheme and in the horse’s facial expressions. In a spread with pitch black edges, the text reads: ‘Jag kunde höra regnet smattra mot taket, men jag kunde inte känna det mot mulen. Jag kunde höra vinden vina, men jag kunde inte känna den rufsa mig i luggen’ (I could hear the rain tapping on the roof, but I couldn’t feel it on my nose. I could hear the wind whistling, but I couldn’t feel it mussing up my mane). A melancholic look on the horse’s face as he gazes from his indoor box into the night outside shows us how he’s feeling. On another page the text reads succinctly: ‘Hö är hö, sa jag. Gräs är gräs’ (Hay is hay, I said. Grass is grass). Here the horse looks longingly out towards the open fields with his chin against the fence. The word ‘fence’ is scarcely mentioned, but the well-defined lines of the stable’s fences and walls in the illustrations mark a visual difference from the softer, almost glowing, lines in the wild. The fusion of words and images is a challenge in any picture book, and Adbåge does this well. 

Children as young as three and even up to older primary-school age will enjoy reading or having the book read to them. It is eye-catching, right from the horse’s handstand on the cover. The main character is very likable with his soft pink nose and wide nostrils that make him look somewhat comical. It’s narrated using the first-person perspective and the horse is not assigned a gender. The story praises independence, but not complete isolation. It challenges the expectation that there’s only one way to be according to the rules. Its point about finding your herd is not only for horses. That look of pure joy on the horses’ faces in the final spread is definitely something we all should be searching for in our relationships.