Big Wishes for Little Feat is about Lafitte De Muze, a foal who grows up to be still much smaller than the other horses. He's pretty disappointed about his situation but the other horses remind him that he is unique and special just the same. Ella comes to Belgium with her family and bonds with Lafitte or "Little Feat" as Ella dubs him. Both Lafitte and Ella learn to stay positive despite their tough situations.

The illustrations reminded me of watercolors with lots of blues and purples. Each page looks like an intricate painting and the illustrations just add to the charm of this book. Big Wishes and Little Feat is a bit long for younger children but makes for a delightful bedtime story for animal lovers!

If you like horses you will love this book. Big Wishes for Little Feat is written by Cheryl Olsten (@mydoversoul) and illustrated by Paolo d’Altan (@paolodaltan)

Lafitte is a horse who is shorter than the other horses in his stable. It does not matter to him. He can still run as fast as the other horses. When the time comes for the horses to find a home, nobody picks him because he is short. Lafitte’s dream is to become a racehorse is shattered. His parents encourage him not to give up. Lafitte practices jumping and resolves to jump as high as he can. Lafitte longs for a human friend.

Ella is a little girl who is forced to live with her kind Aunt. She misses her parents. Her aunt thinks that giving Ella a horse might ease her loneliness. Will Ella and Lafitte become friends?

I loved the illustrations in this book and the strong, determined nature of Lafitte. This book also has a touch of astronomy. A must-read if your little one loves horses and stars.

This story was overlong and boring. I didn’t finish it and have no plans to pick it back up. Sorry.

Lafitte the colt was born on Bonneville farm in Belgium.  Lafitte loves running and jumping and although he is not as big as the other horses, he practices hard to be able to jump higher than any of the others.  When it is time for Lafitte to find an owner, he is not chosen by anyone. Lafitte is sad, but keeps believing in himself.  Far away, a young girl named Ella learns that her family has fallen on hard times and she will be going to live with her Aunt Anastasia in Belgium.  Fate brings Lafitte and Ella together in order for them to do great things.

A story of hope and triumph over adversity, Big Wishes for Little Feat combines themes of believing in yourself with a little bit of magic to create a wonderful story.  This is a children's book, however it is word heavy and has some upper level words as well. This book is best shared as a read-aloud to younger children or for a confident independent reader.  When read aloud to my four year old, the story kept his interest and he loved the beautiful, realistic and detailed illustrations.  There are many important themes in Big Wishes for Little Feat such as believing in yourself, dealing with difficult situations and keeping optimism.  These lead to some great questions and discussions.  The touches of magic were just right to help encourage kids to prevail over negative forces in their lives. 

This book was received for free in return for an honest review.

This is a lovely story about facing the challenges life throws your way and doing so with a smile. It's a story about how we are all special in our own way and, though not everyone will see that, the right person always will.

I must say that I found it to be a little too long for a kid's story. The illustrations, however, are completely stunning, they almost felt like paintings.

A big thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for providing an e-ARC in exchange of an honest and voluntary review.

I received an eARC of Big Wishes for Little Feat from the publisher in exchange for an honest review via NetGalley. Thank you to all involved for this opportunity.

Big Wishes for Little Feat is a beautifully illustrated children's book that is on the cusp between preschool/kindergarten and middle grade. It tells the story of two lonely young souls, one a horse in Belgium and the other a girl in the USA, and how their paths eventually cross.

I enjoyed the artwork throughout this book and as a horse lover I really liked the horse's point of view. I wish little girl Emma's story had been blended into the narrative more, perhaps presented in alternating sections with the horse, rather than having the abrupt switch from horse POV to human POV part way through the story.

I love the "good things come to those who wait" sort of message this story is trying to tell, and I do think the horse's part of the story fulfils that promise. I don't think we needed to know as much as we did about Emma, particularly in this format of halving the story between POVs. Perhaps Emma's backstory would have felt less unnecessary if, as mentioned above, it had been introduced earlier and alternated with the horse.

The title Big Wishes for Little Feat is a little awkward, as it isn't clear who Little Feat is (or whether that was meant to be Feet - it wasn't) until quite late in the story. For most of the story we know the horse as Lafitte, so perhaps Big Wishes for Lafitte might have been better.

I also felt like this story ended abruptly, and that all of Emma's backstory was leading us further into the story than we got. If this is intended to be the first in a series of stories about these characters, then it's a great start. If it's meant to be a stand-alone, then it needed to end either shortly after horse and girl find eachother, or slightly farther along than where we left off, when they're well bonded and at peace with their new lives.

Overall this is a very cute story, and I'm sure in a couple of years when this is my horse-loving toddler's reading level she would love to own a copy. My initial thought was to rate this 3.5 because the narrative itself is a little more flawed than I like to see in a 4, but the illustrations are so captivating that I think I'll bump it up to a 4 anyway.

I received an advance reader copy of this book to read in exchange for an honest review via netgalley and the publishers.

Big Wishes for Little Feat is one of the most captivating and heartfelt stories for children that I have ever read. Every aspect of this book is beautiful, from the story itself to the stunning illustrations throughout.

A young girl gets sent to live with her great aunt as her parents are struggling for money and want her to not have to go without. Here she has a great time but misses her parents dreadfully. A young foal is also feeling saddened because he never gets chosen because of his height and gradually their paths collide to make a beautiful and unbreakable friendship.

This is a story I will cherish forever and share with as many children as I can.

While the book has nice colors and illustrations, the text requires a bit of work. It is often placed oddly on the page, words running into each other, rendering them illegible at times. Other times, the color and placement of the font makes it difficult as well, i.e. black font runs on top a dark brown horse, making it difficult to read.

The book also seemed rather lengthy for a kids' book, and wordy at times- the message seemed to be lost due to the overly wordy plot in the middle of the book.

Big wishes for little feat is an inspiring story about a horse who knew he was great. Others overlooked his talents due to his small frame. He befriends a little girl who is struggling with homesickness. Their relationship grows as they each work towards their own dreams.

I found this story to be beautiful. There were a few errors in the manuscript- some lines overlapped in the story, and some passages were difficult to read with the black font being on dark illustrations. However, this is likely due to the download altering rather an an actualy mistake. I found the illustrations to be breathtaking and a perfect match for this story.

Sorry to say the text was blank and is still blank when I downloaded the book and tried to read it.

I hope this gets fixed soon as I really want to read the book and put up the review.

*That was for the first download.

I tried to download the book at Kindle. It works there. Finally! And I am so glad it does!

You have no idea how comforting this little book is!

I would love to read this to any kid wherever and whenever possible.

The book is so well written.

With all that star talk, genuine care and concern by those who care about Ella, her love for the stars and the sky and the nature, her love for Lafitte the little strong horse which everyone rejected I just fell in love with all the characters and the writing. It feels like warm caramel.

The adult characters are represented very sensibly in a way they understand kids and what they mean when they say they want to best for their kids.

Aunt Anastasia is so much fun!

This book is just so good!

I would totally grab a few copies when it comes out and yes, the one who reads this will feel totally blessed!

Thanks NetGalley for the copy!

Beautiful illustrations and a beautiful story. Little Feat becomes Ella's horse and it was like they were destined for each other. I liked seeing that her family was doing what was best for her and her Aunt was a good person.

Thanks NetGalley for this ARC!

I thought that this was a lovely story and I loved the images used.

The book was easy to follow and the story was easy to understand too but I thought that it ended a little quickly and could have done with a couple of extra pages at the end.

I can see this being a hit (mainly with younger girls aged 8-12) – it is 4 stars from me for this one!

This is a story of a horse named Lafitte De Muze, who never stopped believing in himself.

Lafitte was born on a house farm called Bonneville in Belgium. His only wish was to become a prized show horse and meet the person who can love him and teach him. He loved running through the farm.

But he was shorter compared to his friends, who grew taller with longer legs. He was sad as nobody bought him at the sale just because he was shorter.

It did not affect his confidence for he believed in himself and hence with great determination he started practicing running and jumping at whatever he saw in front him. And gradually he could jump so high that it looked like he was flying along with stars.

On the other side Ella was a beautiful little girl, apple to her parents eyes was sent to her great Aunt Anastasia's house as her parents couldn't afford her education. She always wished to have a horse whi could fly her to the stars.

She missed her parents and was very sad. One day Anastasia took her to the show horse sale at Bonneville so that she could find a horse for herself. Ella instantly got attracted to Lafitte. It became her best friend at a faraway land and she named him Little Feat - a horse of great courage, strength and skill.


This story shows how by believing in ourselves, no matter what others think, we can achieve anything that we want which gives us immense satisfaction. And also there is always someone who would love you and be your companion for your life.

No matter you are short, plump or has any disability just believe in yourself and keep trying because you are special and you can do wonders trusting yourself.

A great picture book for kids with a very motivational subject. I liked the way the author has narrated the story. The pictures are really beautiful and artistic. The cover pic itself is very eye-catching.

Overall it was a wonderful read. A perfect book fir kids.

I received ARC via NetGalley and I'm leaving this review voluntarily

**I received an e-ARC from NetGalley for an honest review**

I like the story, very cute.

This seemed a little long for an young child's book, but a little short for a middle grade novel Unfortunately, the story seemed incomplete- maybe shorten the story or lengthen it, but it feels a little odd with how it's currently set up.

Beautiful artwork- some of the pictures I could easily see framed and put on a wall.

Some of the pages were a little cramped with words, which took away from the art. A couple of pages towards the end were blank of images but had words- but this could be because of my copy being an ARC.

Overall, 3.5/5, but rounded up to 4 due to the beautiful illustrations.

I'd give it a 3.5 stars. It is a pretty book, at first I was expecting to see small little story with pictures like early children books, but it's more like a middle-grade story with beautiful illustrations. I feel like the story was ended too fast, it could have been more to it. Still, it was a very enjoyable read.

Olsten's Big Wishes for Little Feat tells the story about a young girl Ella who is looking for friendship and finds it with a horse named Lafitte (Feat) who experiences a longing to belong as well. They bond over their love of constellations and both develop confidence in who they are. Beautiful illustrations, but the pace of the book had me losing interest.

I started this book expecting a short children’s picture book, but it was more of a short middle grade story, with lovely illustrations mixed in with the text. I loved the classic premise of the book - a young child is lonely and finds a true friend in a animal companion - but I would have loved just a little more of the story, as I felt it ended abruptly. Overall a nice read!