Racing Manhattan

By: Terence Blacker

Narrated by: Stina Nielsen

In a cheering and relatable story of adversity overcome, an outcast teen coaxes a defiant Thoroughbred back into the thrill of competition.

Alone in the world, Jay Barton is a teenage misfit with nothing much going for her besides an extraordinary talent for understanding racehorses and riding them like a pro. When, in a desperate attempt to escape her shifty, opportunistic uncle, she leaves home to work in a racing stable, Jay forms a bond with a beautiful gray mare named Manhattan - brilliant, misunderstood, dangerous, and heading for racing's scrap heap. Recognizing a fellow misfit, Jay fights to give Manhattan one last opportunity to show that she's the champion she was born to be. Together they face a world of prejudice and cruelty, fighting back the only way they know how - by becoming the best.

©2016 Terence Blacker, original book published by Candlewick Press. (P)2018 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.

Courage and Determinatiion

This well-written story is about Jay, a teen girl who hasn’t much going for her except an affinity for horses and an abundance of determination. She also has the inherent need to be a winner. The story is an underdog story that includes the mare, Manhattan, who has been similarly written off as a misfit. The theme broadens to integrate world politics and ideas about the role and abilities of women in general. The accuracy of the racing world depicted is quite good. I highly recommend this book. The narrator is top notch.