Taming Star Runner S Hinton

I was 12 years old when I original went to Long Beach Island (known by locals as LBI), my parents had rented a cottage on the beach and it was the summer of a lifetime.  Its decades later now, I’m an adult with children of my own, but I wondered regarding the possibleness of revisiting my youth, or at the very least, introducing my own kids to this barrier island treasure on the Atlantic Ocean.

The long stretchings of white sandy beaches gave this little island (its total length is approximately 18 miles) it is name, and it has remained “Long Beach” since early European exploration.

Travelling back in time to whaling days, LBI was an indispensable percentage of the culture, and it is part of shipwrecks adorned the coast until a lighthouse was constructed on the Northern end.  The lighthouse is still standing, serving today as one of a lot of tourist attractions.

Over the years LBI became a favored spot for the celebrities and the affluent and because of this, assorted sporting clubs formed, taking vantage of the wildlife and magnificent fishing.  Today LBI is a quiet and tranquil spot (except on weekends and holidays) and there remains a spirit of “being a good neighbor” that makes this an idealisti spot for families.

For vacationers with discriminating teenagers, Long Beach Island offers everything from long quiet walks, to surfing, parasailing, wave runner rentals, swimming and sailing. Boredom will likely not be an issue.

More fascinated in history and nature?  LBI stands ready to fill those interests with in-depth eco-tours in the Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge, which has a international reputation as one of the best bird looking at spots on the east coast.  The Long Beach Island Historical Museum, is a outstanding way to explore the rich history of the area, stretching back to the time of Captain Cornelius Jacobsen May a Dutch explorer and tradesman who named Barnegat Bay (the anglicized version of  “Barendegat”).

But wait, there’s so much more, you’ll also find an amusement park (called Fantasy Island), nearby water slides, miniature golf and for those with refined tastes, how in regards to catching an off-Broadway play.  LBI is a destination that ought to be on everyone’s list of “must see” destination, from five star dining on fresh seafood, to challenging golf courses located close by, LBI is a unfeigned travel destination.

LBI HISTORICAL FACT: In early years one could only reach Long Beach Island by boat with some New Yorker using the Edge Cover or Tom’s River ferry. The railroad was the primary to invent a bridge, making the island more accessible and perchance adding to it is popularity.  While the primary bridge has long since been destroyed by storms, a causeway allows easy access.

LBI today is much dissimilar than the island I visited with my parent, it’s now home to twenty dissimilar communities, some with long histories, others that grew from simple life saving stations on the beach.

And while it’s vastly different, it’s still much the same with cool ocean breeze, long white beaches and a distinctive personality.

Long Beach Island (LBI) is portion of the history of America, it’s had it is part of trials, as any growing community does, but it remains set apart, a barrier island, a relaxing atmosphere, as escape from the harried pace of life.

Taming Star Runner S Hinton

“A powerful story. . . . Travis is Everyteen: share insecure hell-raiser, share closet intellectual, prone to both sneers and tears. Hinton proceeds to grow more reflective in her books, but her great understanding, not of what teenagers are but of what they may hope to be, is undiminished.”—Kirkus Reviews

An ALA Best Books for Young Adults

An ALA Quick Pick

From Publishers WeeklyWhen rebellious adolescent Travis is sent to live on his uncle’s farm, he forms an uneasy friendship with a young riding instructor and a strange kinship with her restless horse, Star Runner. Ages 12-up.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library JournalGrade 7-10 Devoted fans will leap on Hinton’s new novel, yet her protagonist Travis is no Tex (Delacorte, 1979). On the surface, this 15 year old resembles the classic misfits from the author’s former books; however, Travis lacks Tex’ zest for living. Released from juvenile hall to cool down at his uncle’s Oklahoma horse ranch, he acts the role of sensible punkhe looks like a rebel and flies into violent rages, yet he seeks to publish his novel and he loves his cat. He wants to be left alone, but he suffers from being ignored by the “hicks” at school. The high point of his introspective retreat is his attraction to Casey, the riding instructor who leases his uncle’s barn. The scenes of stable chores, riding lessons, and horse shows may interest a great deal of readers, while the equestrian jargon will mean not one thing to the book’s indispensable audience. Hinton uses a horse, Star Runner, as a counterpart to Travis to illustrate her theme of life’s quirks: some win, a heap of don’t. Without making much of an effort, Travis ends up a winneralive, free from jail, and a published author. Hinton builds a sparse plot around a predominately bleak theme. Although the story isn’t fleshed out, tough-guy Travis will appeal to a sure readership. Others will find him forgettable, exceptionally equated to his fictional predecessors. Charlene Strickland, formerly at Albuquerque Pub . Library , N.M
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From the PublisherTravis is the epitome of cool, even when he’s in trouble. But when he’s sent to stay with his uncle on a ranch in the country, he finds that his schoolmates don’t like his tough city ways.

He does find friendship of a sort with Casey, who runs a riding school at the ranch. She’s the bravest person Travis has ever met, and crazy sufficient to try to tame the Star Runner, her beautiful, dangerous horse who’s always on edge, when it comes to to explode. It’s clear to Travis that he and the Star Runner are two of a kind, creatures not meant to be tamed.

Taming Star Runner S Hinton Photo

Taming Star Runner S Hinton Picture

Taming Star Runner S Hinton Picture

Taming Star Runner S Hinton Pic

Most helpful client reviews

10 of 11 persons found the following review helpful.
Read the others, starting with RUMBLE FISH
By Bradley R. Cook
Reviewer Jamie Curran states that this is the only book by S.E. Hinton that she has read, and she may never read another. That would be tragic.

While THE OUTSIDERS, HInton’s debut novel, is rather powerful, her best book by far is RUMBLE FISH, which is not only a great novel for young adults but a unfeigned literary masterpiece.

If only I could say the same of TAMING THE STAR RUNNER.
It seems to have been written by a dissimilar author.

Perhaps it’s a matter of perspective: Hinton wrote this book much later than the others, after her own son was a teenager. Too, this is the primary time she has used a third-person voice in one of her novels. THE OUTSIDERS owes much of it is success to the fact that it sounds like it is told by a kid – it was. Hinton was only 17 when OUTSIDERS was published. (The 14-year-old narrator, Ponyboy, is a boy, but Hinton pulled off the voice flawlessly.)

Here, the omniscient third person narrator sounds like an adult, and a largely disapproving one at that. We read a great deal when it comes to the trouble that Travis got into, and we are introduced to two of his friends, who come off as finish dorks, but we are provided little clear or deep perception into Travis’ motivatings for doing what he does, or his perceptions of them. Instead we listen in regards to his transgressions from numerous anonymous adult who seems to like the boy but can’t actually relate.

Much of what Travis does allround the story is spectacularly stupid. Somehow, in RUMBLE FISH and THE OUTSIDERS, we knew that what the characters were doing was faulty – carrying switchblades and most times using them, stealing cars, breaking into stores, getting into fights – and they were things that most of us readers would never do, but we could empathize with the characters who did these things. Here, when Travis’ uncle finds out that he has written a novel and it’s been accepted for publication, he says, “Kid, you don’t strike me as the kind who could write a compound sentence, much less a novel.”

Well, yeah. That’s how he strikes me, too.

So what ABOUT the novel that Travis wrote? We’re given not one thing except that Travis would many times spend weekends holed up in his room, writing, while his doofus friends wondered what he was up to. Then Travis tells his editor he dreams in regards to his characters as if they’re humans he knows, but the reader gets almost no data when it comes to them at all.

Writing a novel will have to take a outstanding deal of persistence, intelligence, passion, and creativity, and Travis exhibits none of these through his actions in the story. When the time comes for him to prove his strength and courage, HInton throws in – GUESS WHAT! – a fire. She already did this, and it worked, in THE OUTSIDERS. This time it comes off as a cheap rip-off of a better novel. And one she wrote, yet!

One last note: About the time STAR RUNNER was published, there were a number of young adult novels that came out that were based on the same premise: If you just take a wayward lad out of the big, bad city and give him a horse to love and take care of – and make him do galore hard manual labor such as only ranchers ever see – he’ll turn from a delinquent into a strong, upstanding American who knows the value of hard work, blah, blah, blah. S.L. Rottman, for example, is just one of a slew of writers who wrote a forgetable novel, HERO, just like this.

Come on, Susy! You wrote TEX, for crying out loud. You recognise better.

And your readers suppose better from you.

10 of 12 persons found the following review helpful.
This was the best story I have ever read.
By A
If I had to choose from a rating of 1-10, Taming the Star Runner, would be a 10. I have always wanted to live on a farm. I thought this book had alot of emossional ups and downs. I like how a bad, non-emossional, punk, turns into a caring, emossional, young man. There was a little bit of everything in the story. There was love, anger, sadness, and happiness. It gave me a good lesson on drinking and it is consequences. It genuinely shows me what a bad step-father is like. My step-father is no where near as bad as Stan. It taught me to be sure to choose the right friends and the right descisions in life. Taming the Star Runner was the best book I have ever read.

3 of 3 humans found the following review helpful.
Great book!!
By A
“Taming the Star Runner” was awesome! I loved each minute of it, even if it wasn’t challenging or long. To make it longer would have dragged it out too much. The plot was interesting (especially since it was in regards to horses!!) I primary read “The Outsiders” in school and fell in love with S. E. Hinton’s books. I couldn’t never even imagine attempting to get a book published when i was 16!! I did detect a lot of matchings amongst the two books (same quotes and reputation portrayl, things like that).

I commend this book highly!

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