The Secret of the Kelpie (Picture Kelpies)

One sunny afternoon in Scotland, Flora sees a beautiful horse by the shore of the loch. Her older brother Fegus says they can go for a ride, but Flora was looking at some wet hoof prints on the ground. Everyone except Flora gets on the horse, and the horse begins walking toward the loch. They then know that it is a Kelpie, that is trying to lure them in to drown them! Flora sees a rock that shows how to fight it. Flora tells her siblings to use metal against the kelpie, but Fergus’ hands were tangled in the kelpie’s mane. Finally Flora swims out to save Fergus by getting his pocketknife from his boot and cutting the kelpie’s mane.

I like this book because it is fun and interesting. The kelpie legend is an interesting legend from Scotland, and this story is a little bit scary, but not too scary for little children, because all the children are saved in the end. Flora was very smart to be careful of an animal she didn’t know, and very brave to swim out to save her brother. The illustrations are very pretty and fun, and are an exciting part of the story.