The Truth About Wind

The title of this book is to be carefully considered: the ‘Wind’ here is not a meteorological phenomenon but a small wooden horse; and the need to acknowledge truth is at the heart of the tale.

Jesse finds a horse – a wooden toy mounted on a wheeled platform – outside his fence after a little girl in a wagon has passed by in the lane. He delightedly pulls it into “the safety” of his yard.

If you think this is only an inanimate toy, you would be wrong. For why would Jesse name it what he does?

“He runs faster than any horse in the world so I have named him Wind.”
Wind raced across the tabletop prairie and up and over the rolling cauliflower
hills while Jesse ate supper. He leaped deep canyons and sailed above tall
waterfalls while Jesse had his bath.

The truth of Wind’s provenance, about which Jesse has dissembled when questioned and fretted over when he sees “Lost Horse” notices on the bulletin board at the library and by the bridge Jesse and Mom pass while out for a walk, gnaws at him.

When Jesse finally fell asleep his dream broke into shifting pieces
like shapes flickering beyond a wooden fence.
And in the quietest, darkest time of night Jesse found himself
awake and thinking about where Wind has really come from.

Sitting disconsolately at the back fence another morning, Jesse hears the creak of a wagon and thrusts Wind through the pickets where the toy is reunited with his original owners. We find out that, to them, the horse is not Wind; he is Midnight.

It was a name so perfect, and said with such joy, the Jesse’s sadness
and confusion suddenly fell away.
“You found my horse! You Found Midnight!”
And the shiny black horse - dark as midnight, fast as wind – raced home.

Hazel Hutchins is the author of nearly fifty children’s books (A Second is a Hiccup; SNAP!, also illustrated by Dušan Petričić) which are staples of the Annick Press list. This story is a collaboration with new author Gail Herbert. I have never been clear about how two writers can produce a picture book together, but this seamless text with its perfect choice of words proves that it can be done. Hutchins’ signature gentle whimsy is on display here, and readers can feel the weight lifting from Jesse’s shoulders when he makes things right in the end by restoring Wind to whom he belongs. Mom’s understanding that something is amiss, and how she patiently waits for Jesse to figure the tangle out on his own, is another satisfying plot element.

The illustrations by Petričić use his typical somewhat frenetic line and lots of white space to denote movement. A series of silhouettes showing the transformation of a toy horse on wheels to a galloping steed is shown as an accompaniment to Jesse’s bedtime musings. A double spread of the crowded city park, with Wind in the foreground pulling Jesse along so fast that he is airborne, centres the book. Although the beginning of the tale is lighthearted, the muted colours seem to echo Jesse’s crisis of conscience and his growing uneasiness about the possession of his tempting find.

The Truth About Wind is a wonderful adventure of childish imagination, with, at its core, an important idea about how dishonesty can spoil a beautiful thing. The book should find a place in many schools and public library picture book collections.