Taming the Star Runner
Books | Young Adult Fiction / Boys & Men
3.5
(91)
S.E. Hinton
“A powerful story” of a boy leaving the city streets for a summer at a horse farm—and discovering the possibility of a different life(Kirkus Reviews). An ALA Best Book for Young AdultsAn ALA Quick Pick With an absent mother and a domineering stepfather, Travis uses his tough-guy exterior to hide his true passion: writing. After a violent confrontation with his stepfather, Travis is sent to live on his uncle’s horse ranch—exile to a born-and-bred city kid. Angry and yearning for a connection, Travis befriends Casey, the horse-riding instructor at the ranch, and the untamable horse in her stable: the Star Runner. When a friend from the city visits with stories of other kids from the neighborhood facing jail time, Travis is more determined than ever that he needs to escape the life of juvenile delinquency he seems destined for. When the offer of a book deal comes through, Travis is hopeful that this is his chance to escape—if only his stepfather will stop standing in the way of his dreams. In this novel, the acclaimed author of The Outsiders “portrays her characters with sympathy and yet commendably refuses to gloss over rough edges or gritty truths” (Publishers Weekly). “Hinton continues to grow more reflective in her books, but her great understanding, not of what teenagers are but of what they can hope to be, is undiminished.”—Kirkus Reviews
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Author
S.E. Hinton
Pages
193
Publisher
Diversion Books
Published Date
2014-01-15
ISBN
1938120833 9781938120831
Community ReviewsSee all
"I read “The Outsiders” for school in 7th grade for a literature class I was in and like many others, fell in love with it. I liked it so much I ended up nabbing everything by S.E Hinton I could and reading it all and I had a absolute blast with it. I reread “Rumble Fish” close to a year ago and wasn’t overly impressed. It was good, but it didn’t completely wow me. But I still leaped at the opportunity to get a free copy of “Taming the Star Runner” when my school gave away a ton of books. I remembered loving it and I wanted to re-read it, but I put it on a bookshelf and it sat there for over a year, that is until today when I picked it up after troubles with my Chromebook that led me to needing other things to read. I PLOWED through it reading the 180 pages in a single day. It was impressive that I had as much fun reading it as I did over half a decade ago. After-all, I was a very different person with a very different brain. It’s a book that spoke to me then and speaks to me again today. The characters are real and vivid, they feel like the epitome of teenagers. You fall in love with Travis from page one. Hinton has a way of hitting all the chords of teenage hood like I’ve never read before, and in a touching and sad way that makes you really think about your life and what your doing. The endings of her books always stick with you. The plot exploding at the end to take things a completely different and usually tragic way. The best young adult books can be consumed at multiple age levels and this one is a PRIME example of that. I couldn’t recommend this enough.
I had the best of times re-reading this classic."
Cole Johnson
