World War II Close Up: They Saved the Stallions

This book starts at the Hofberg Palace in Vienna, Austria on Sept 10, 1944. It introduces Nero and his stable mates, who were staying calm even though they were being bombed at the time. The horses are Lepizzaner stallions, but Nero isn’t one the silvery stallions; he’s a brown former racehorse. Nero belongs to Alois Podhajsky, the director of the Spanish Riding School. For four years before this, Alois has been struggling to keep the school and horses safe, but now, bombs fall close and smash out windows and blast doors off their frames. The air is filled with smoke and explosions. Alois’ only desire is to save the horses, even if it means appealing to American troops to do it.

I loved, loved, loved reading World War II Close Up: They Saved the Stallions by Deborah Hopkinson, like really loved it. Alois is my favorite character. My favorite part came at the end, a description of a horse show that the author went to. I enjoy reading about both World Wars so this was an interesting aspect of it that I hadn’t read about before, and I loved learning about Alois and how he saved the Lepizzaners.