What would a horse say if it could talk? Anna Sewell always wondered. Born on March 30, 1820, in England, Anna grew up loving horses. When she was fourteen, she injured her ankle and could never walk well again. She depended on horse-drawn carriages to get around. Riding behind horses every day, she noticed how some were treated with care and others with cruelty. Drivers would yank on tight reins. Heavy loads would make horses stumble. Anna decided to write a book from the perspective of a horse named Black Beauty. The horse tells its own life story, from a happy foal in a green pasture to a work horse pulling heavy cabs through London streets. Some owners are gentle. Others are harsh. It took Anna six years to finish the book. She was very sick and sometimes had to dictate the words to her mother because she was too weak to write. Black Beauty was published in 1877. It became one of the bestselling books in history. Readers were so moved that laws were changed to protect horses from cruel treatment. Anna died five months after the book came out, but her story had already changed the world.