A Horse Named Steve (Steve the Horse)

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David: Yeah, we were definitely drawn in first by how beautiful the characters are in the book – but then by the words that come out of the characters, because they’re hilarious. I think in part because of how the show looks, but also because Steve is just such a great character. It would work especially well with a SWBST (Somebody Wanted But So Then) lesson since Steve's goals and conflicts are so clear.

We definitely need more books like this which highlight the importance of accepting who you are rather than following what the crowd does. The 52×11’ project is a coproduction with Canadian children’s content studio Nelvana, headquartered in Toronto, and is aimed at children aged six to nine.This shows him as not perfect, and more relatable to young readers, and makes the story more fun which will keep readers interested and entertain by the story after it is over. Many of the pitches are very formulaic, and so to stand out, you want to play with that formula a bit. Although the picture books target kids ages three to seven, they have a self-awareness and “dry humor” that make it easy to age up the series concept for eight- to 11-year-olds, explains Williams.

This can lead into a great discussion of what really makes people special, and a self-check evaluation of our materialistic tendencies (I say our because even adults need this self-check from time to time). Digital storybook platform Vooks adapted the lead book into an animated short, narrated by Rainn Wilson (who played Dwight Schrute in The Office) in 2021.To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average.

This lovely picture book explores what it means to be special --and to have friends-- when Steve the horse with dreams of exceptionalism finds a golden horn, he straps it on his head and declares himself exceptional. Steve, after a moment of despair, decides that not having anything on his head makes him exceptional yet again.Illustrated in lively black-and-white artwork interwoven with humorous commentary, the book and its follow-up, “Team Steve,” follow the exploits of Steve, a good-natured, rather obtuse horse who thinks he’s ordinary but wants to be exceptional.