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National Velvet - Enid Bagnold |
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Amazon.com Price:
n/a
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Publisher: HarperCollins
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Availability:
116 available Used from $0.01
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Average customer rating:
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Reviews from Pethobbyist.com:
Review By: Christie Keith and the readers of Hoofbeats, 2005-11-28  Great Horse Books
By Christie Keith and the readers of HoofBeats, the Newsletter of HorseHobbyist.com
 I'm not sure when I've had as much fun as going through all the responses to a query on "Great Horse Books" asked of the readers of HoofBeats. I think we all had the same childhood, as our number one book is not likely to take anyone by surprise: National Velvet. The rest of the list is a combination of childhood favorites, training and husbandry volumes, and stories of great horses. I discovered a few new books, and re-discovered some old friends, too - yes, I confess, at the ripe old age of 46, a reader's recommdation got me to dig up an old copy of Misty of Chincoteague.
National Velvet by Enid Bagnold
Seabiscuit: An American Legend by Laura Hillenbrand
Black Beauty by Anna Sewell
The Black Stallion by Walter Farley
Misty of Chincoteague by Marguerite Henry
The Horseman's Bible by Jack Coggins
Secretariat: The Making of a Champion by William Nack
The Whole Horse Catalog: The Complete Guide to Buying, Stabling and Stable Management, Equine Health, Tack, Rider Apparel, Equestrian Activities and Organizations...and ... Else a Horse Owner and Rider Will Ever Need
Horse Owner's Veterinary Handbook by James M. Giffin, M.D. and Tom Gore, D.V.M.
My Friend Flicka by Mary O'Hara
These are the top ten books cited by readers ... you can view the full list in the latest issue of HoofBeats.
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Reader Reviews from Amazon.com:
National Velvet 
At first, I thought this was better than My Friend Flicka, but it was the same in rating. The plot didn't have adventure until the very end, and still, it wasn't very clear during the race. The food was disgusting sounding (liver and kidney pie, or something), and the entire plot was a little boring.
Not as Good as the Movie 
We all know the story of National Velvet and stories like it, as it has become the plot point of many horse themed books and movies. Girl gets horse of her dreams, discovers that he posesses an amazing, natural jumping ablilty, then trains him to win a prestigious competition. The dialog, though authentic, is difficult to interpret at times and painstaking to read. Velvet is a poorly devolped main character and does not change or mature as a person during the course of the book for you to really root for her. National Velvet is predictable, contains no subplots or conflicts, and moves along at a snail's pace. It has its good moments, but not enough for me to rate it more than three stars. It is rare for me to say that the movie adaption is better, but in this case it is. The plot is more devolped and the racing scenes more exciting, not to mention the horse playing the Pie is gorgeous.
TIMELESS STORY 
National Velvet by Enid Bagnold is full of fun and super exciting! Velvet is a girl who lives in a village in England. She dreams of having a horse. Within two weeks she has six! One is a piebald who can jump like a dream. Velvet decides to enter him in the most famous steeplechase in England; the Grand National. Although girls are not allowed to enter Velvet disguises her self as a boy and enters. Can she win the race? Or more importantly, will she get caught? I was always wondering what would happen next. Because of the two page illustrations I could easily picture every setting. (Refers to an original book club edition, 1935, illustrated by Winslow.) Velvet was crazy to risk her and her horse's life and limb as well as a large fine, which I thought I would never have been able to do. I would have been too scared. Enid Bagnold shows us that winning is not everything and fame does not last. This timeless story is a lot of fun from cover to cover!
A classic horse story
This is a great classic story. I read it first as a child and have read it many times since then. The author is British and she writes in a very classic, literary way that may be difficult at first to "get into." However, even written this way it's not a boring story. One of the best things about this book is Velvet's family. The family is portrayed as being dedicated to each other without being sappy and simplistic. The parents are strong moral people. Ultimately, the family is happy and this gives Velvet strength to do a heroic deed. I keep going back to National Velvet because it is a classic story written without the cheap gimmicks of mystery, cliffhanger's and confrontations. This is a good book for family to read aloud too.
truly bizarre book
I read this as a child and liked it okay, but re-reading it, it seems a little odd. For one thing, the author keeps referring to the children's hair as "silver" "pale" or "white." Does that mean that they're blond or prematurely gray? Another thing is that the writer seems to take great pleasure in describing the family's meals and making them sound utterly disgusting.
So what about the horse story? It is utterly unrealistic. The protagonist is given five horses on the spur of the moment by a dying man. Legitimate, I guess, but unrealistic. Then she wins another horse in a village. Okay, that's possible, but the horse goes on to win the Grand National after his first ever gymkhana. The girl is a natural rider but hasn't ridden anything but her pony for eight previous years. It's unlikely, that even with her talent, she had the guts to win at the National without ever competing in a hurdle race before.
What is it with these horse heroines that discover wild horses and tame them in a short amount of time to win the Kentucky Derby or the Olympics? Such training usually takes years and years of patient conditioning and practice. As a rider and horse lover, I think this is absurd.
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