Anne Hambleton

The story of Raja is the story of many thoroughbreds: hard work, the joy of the run, and a tragic end to the only life that the animal, owners, and trainers know. It's a good book for racing fans, but also, because of the transitions that Raja goes through, is good for lovers of just about /any/ equestrian sport. Young readers will be easily able to feel the emotion and joy of the horse and the struggles within his life.

Some things that I found somewhat off putting were the differences between the thoughts of the horse and simple descriptions in the text. Often there are times when the thought of the horse could have been just as useful as regular text. The change in tempo was somewhat throwing me off as an adult reader, but might not for younger readers. There were also some things that a book on horse racing and horses in general shouldn't have done... like mix up the Preakness and Belmont stakes in one location (or seem to) and write about someone telling a volunteer at a horse show about all the ways a horse can spook. Someone working at a horse show, even as a volunteer should /not/ be handling them if they have no experience what so ever.

For the most part, it was good to get "in the horse's head" and experience life the way the horse does. I found it particularly eye opening to have the horse humanized in the fact that after he suffers his career ending injury, he goes through a process of discovering what he wants to do with his life. Yes, as a horse he gets moved around without any say in the matter, but discovering new lines of work, discovering new sports, is told from a very unique perspective that puts you into the heart of the character.… (mer)