Midnight by Mark Greenwood (review)

Born on a cattle ranch in Australia, Midnight is a coal-black mare trained by her owner, Guy. Come 1914, they each join the cavalry; initially Guy is sent to Turkey without a horse, but then he’s deployed to Cairo, where he finds midnight again. Their unit patrols the arid Sinai, and they’re faced with battle at Beersheba. Midnight and Guy gallop forward, leaping the trenches filled with Ottoman soldiers, until a single bullet fells them both and only Guy survives. Spare, poetic present-tense text is more impressionistic than informative (“The wind blows in Midnight’s mane. And they ride to join the cavalry”), and each scene is an expressive snapshot (“Shrapnel kicks up dust. Bullets clip Guy’s hat”). However, the terseness and artistic distance limits the usual involvement of an animal story—perhaps a good thing, given the tragic ending—and there’s not enough historical detail to compensate by giving the story satisfying completeness as a biography. Lessac’s saturated gouache illustrations and folk-art naïve draftsmanship are at their best in crowd scenes, with a compelling view of the line of khaki-clad ANZACs tramping diagonally through the foggy, swirly muck of Gallipoli toward the bay; the full-bleed spreads emphasize the drama of the backdrops, as with the lines of cavalry horses tied up and patiently waiting in front of the Pyramids or the orange glow of sunset over the desert as the troops prepare their charge. This might be most useful as a facet of a larger look at World War I; it may even be more effective than stories of human losses at bringing home the war’s toll. End matter includes photographs of Guy and Midnight, information about the charge at Beersheba, and source notes.