Beauty Is Only Skin Deep! Fritz and the Beautiful Horses by Jan Brett

ONCE THERE WAS A WALLED CITY KNOWN FOR ITS BEAUTIFUL HORSES.

THEY WERE MAGNIFICENT JUMPERS AND SPLENDID CHARGERS. IT WAS DECREED THAT ONLY THE MOST BEAUTIFUL WOULD BE ALLOWED IN THE CITY.

FRITZ WAS NOT BEAUTIFUL.

Fritz is small and shaggy, built low to the ground for pulling, with an always tangled mane and tail and mostly muddy hooves.

But Fritz is gentle and always willing. He watches the beautiful horses in their elegant trappings going and coming and wishes he were as graceful and lovely as they. He tries to take long strides and lift his hooves prettily like the fancy horses. But day by day, he works hard and grows very strong and sure of foot.

But the children of the town are terrified of the beautiful horses. They are scary to ride, always prancing, easily startled, and tossing their heads and whinnying fearfully.

Then one day the river suddenly rises from torrential rains in the hills. The bridge that linked the walled city to the land around it falls under the force of the roiling waters, leaving the children outside the city for a riding lesson on their magnificent mounts. But the beautiful horses spook and refuse to cross the rising water. The children cannot get back to their homes.

"WE MIGHT ALL FALL OFF!" THEY CRIED.

THEN THEY NOTICED FRITZ.

FRITZ WAS NOT BEAUTIFUL. BUT HE WAS GENTLE AND KIND AND SURE-FOOTED AND ALWAYS WILLING TO WORK. ONE BY ONE FRITZ CARRIED THE CHILDREN. HE CALMLY STEPPED THROUGH THE RIVER FROM ROCK TO ROCK AND UP THE OTHER SIDE.

Fritz is the little pony who could, in the newly revised edition of Jan Brett's [ [ [ Fritz and the Beautiful Horses [ FRITZ AND THE BEAUTIFUL HORSES ] By Brett, Jan ( Author )Mar-23-1981 Hardcover (G. P. Putnam's Sons, 2016 rev. ed.), a lovely republishing of her 1981 story that reaffirms the belief that beauty isn't everything in this world. Even in this early effort, Jan Brett's illustrations are lovely, with jewel-like artwork worth of a valued tapestry, with deep colors and elegant line and with her trademark borders which are both decorative and functional, acting as foreshadowing for what is to happen next in the story. A fine cautionary fable, well restored for the modern child.