Steve is a horse who wants to be special. He finds a stick and attaches it to his head and now everyone wants to be like him! But then he loses his horn. Will Steve find what makes him special? Kids will love to laugh at Steve, who is not the brightest, as he mistakes a reflection for reality and strikes up a new fashion trend.

Note: I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley. I was not compensated in any other fashion for the review and the opinions reflected below are entirely my own. Special thanks to the publisher and author for providing the copy.

This is a great book for children ages 3-6. Steve declares he will be great. In doing so, he attempts to stand out from the other creatures. The book inspires lessons on identity, being comfortable with who you are, and in doing so, you are great!

The humorous illustrations and fun definitions of higher-level words were the best part of this book for me. The story of Steve’s desire to stand out…not quite so much. Again, I may be showing my age here, but we don’t all have to be exceptional, and being ordinary is okay. I almost feel like Steve’s friends are making fun of him, and he doesn’t really learn anything new.

Possible Objectionable Material:
Can’t think of anything.

Who Might Like This Book:
Kids who like “Fancy Nancy”—this book has the same tone when explaining “big” words.

Thank you, NetGalley, for the ARC. This book also reviewed at http://biblioquacious.blogspot.com/2017/08/a-panoply-of-picturebooks.html. and on Amazon, Goodreads, and LibraryThing.

A Horse Named Steve is a picturebook by Kelly Collier about a horse named Steve who is a fine horse, but who longs to be more. When Steve finds a gold horn in the forest and attaches it to his head, ta-da! Exceptional! His friends are so impressed, they, too, attach objects to their own heads, in an effort to be as exceptional as Steve. So when Steve suddenly realizes his horn has gone missing, he’s devastated! He won’t be exceptional without his horn! Or will he?

A Horse Named Steve is a charming story about a horse wanting to be special, or more special than he already is. This is something everyone can relate to- especially young readers who are still trying to figure out just who they are. I like that Steve did learn the lesson that he is still special with or without the horn, but he still likes to have a special something. 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. The illustrations are as fun and quirky as the story and made me love the book even more.

Poor Steve just wants to be exceptional (that means special). So when he finds a golden horn in the forest, just lying around, he knows he can use it to make himself exceptional.. Loved the comedic illustrations.

I received an eARC copy of this book from the publisher. Here is my honest review.

I really wanted to love this book. The illustrations are nice; I especially like how some of the story is shown in boxes spread across the page and that there are hoofprints as a visual clue for the reading order. Unfortunately, while Steve is cute, he's not a character that I fell in love with. As for the writing, Collier included lots of great vocabulary, but it was done in a way that made me think of the Fancy Nancy series.
Our culture wants everyone to feel special - exceptional even. It's almost part of our human nature. This book completely missed the mark on sending the message that it's not our looks, possessions, friends or talents that make us special.

I really enjoyed this book with it's humor and simple illustrations. I love the silliness and I see it as a great read aloud for parents as well as children to enjoy.

I liked teh illustrations better than the plot on this one. I loved Steve: his buck teeth, his big barrel chest, his body language. Man, even without reading the text each illustration tells us exactly what Steve is feeling. I liked the writing style, the asides and definitions of bi words. On the whole its a rather clever bit of writing. I just wasn't overwhelmed by the story itself.

A goofy story about a horse who wants to be different, exceptional. He finds a gold horn and uses it to make him stand out. Then all of his friends follow suit. Through some disappointment, Steve realizes that he can be himself and still be exceptional.
While the story was funny, I'm not feeling overly confident in the message it sends to young children about wanting to be something you are not.

I love Steve! He is so adorable. The artwork in this book makes the entire story. The humor through the art alone makes this one a buy for me. I loved the story as well. Steve and his plans are funny and educational.. I especially loved the use of vocabulary in this. Children and adults alike will find this one a quick favorite.

Steve is a horse. He’s a horse who isn’t satisfied with fine or ordinary. Steve wants to be EXCEPTIONAL. And when he finds a golden horn, he thinks that may be his ticket to moving up. Or just maybe Steve’s gold horn will inadvertently help him and the other animals to learn a lesson on self-worth and their own foolish tendencies through Steve’s antics.

Wowsers, Steve sure is one special horse. His antics will for sure have kids laughing (even quite grown kids). Collier’s word choice and illustrations help make sure of that. As I was reading this to myself it struck me that this would make a great read aloud, especially for someone practicing doing different voices while reading aloud. Steve just begs for a certain type of voice to fit his looks, and he’s got some great lines. A few other animals get equally great lines, and the narrator jumps in every now and then too. So pick this one for practicing reading aloud with different voices. The other thing that struck me while reading this was that it is a subtle social commentary along the lines of Dr. Seuss’s Sneetches. Because even though the animals scoff at Steve, you notice in the illustrations they all start tying other things to their heads to be more exceptional. We may not tie a gold horn to our head to be cool, but I bet we all have something we’re doing to improve our social status. See if kids can identify ways they try to one up each other to be special (my first thought was technology, but it can be clothes and numerous other things). 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). It’s a good time to re-evaluate if we really need to do that thing, why we’re doing that, and what really gives us value. Thanks for making us laugh while we think, Steve (and Kelly). Definitely ordering this for our elementary library.

I thought the illustrations were cute, but the story left me a little disappointed.

Steve is a horse that's just fine as he is, but he thinks he can be better. He wants to be exceptional. He finds a beautiful gold horn lying on the ground in the forest, and that's it: he's found the pass to being exceptional! He ties the horn on his head and showboats to all of his woodland friends, who are so taken, they find items to tie on their own heads: sticks, rocks, anything they can find. But Steve accidentally loses his horn - oh no! What's an exceptional horse to do when he loses his exceptional horn?

A Horse Named Steve is hilarious in its side commentary (notes throughout the book explain words like devastated: "that means really, really bummed", or refer to his moods: "Mr. Mopeypants") and its execution of an image-obsessed horse, but kids will get it: it's not what you wear, or how you look. The commentary adds a little wink, wink, nudge, nudge humor to kids, bringing them in on the joke, and the raccoon that isn't quite as enamored of Steve gives kids an entry point to a discussion: why doesn't he think Steve's so great? Do you think Steve is treating his friends with respect? What really makes our friends special?

Kelly Collier's two-color ink and watercolor art, finished in Photoshop, is adorable and fun. Steve's physicality plays up his ego for laughs, and there are visual jokes aplenty, especially when his golden horn slips from on top of his head to under his chin. Playing with fonts brings more humor to the page by emphasizing different words and making Steve's very name a standout with curlicues and bolding.

You can have a lot of storytime fun with this book: make horns with your readers! For older readers, pair this one with Dr. Seuss' The Sneetches for a good discussion on the value we place on appearances.

Hilariously funny and sweetly special. A Horse Name Steve will be a new favorite!

Dthis was a fun book that felt like the audience it was targeting was younger/hip oarents

Adorable tale of an exceptional horse. The art is simple and two toned with a lot of clean, white space. The story is fun and exceptional kids will like it. I'm particularly impressed with Steve's body language. There's so much comedy in the way that horse moves, and it really accentuates the simple story. Would give to kids who like Unicorn Thinks He's Pretty Great and The Princess and the Pony.

This was a quick and cute read about being ok with being yourself. Good for kids who feel different or who do not think they have any special qualitites.