Customer Reviews

The Black Stallion Challenged

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I own almost all of the Black Stallion books. This is my personal favorite because of the exciting race between the Black and Flame.

Firstly, before reading this I recommend you first get familiar with "The Black Stallion" by reading a few of his books. Also reading "The Island Stallion" would greatly help. This book is about the closely matched competition between The Black Stallion (The Black) and The Island Stallion (Flame). It starts out as a letter to Alec Ramsey asking for help from Steve Duncun, but it turns out to be so much more. As the competition builds between the horses it also starts to build between the owners as well. This book will bring an exciting combination of shock and suspence.

I thought this book was captivating and it really pulled me in. When an unknown Island Stallion named Flame comes to the track and starts breaking records some believe that the Black has finally met his match! Can the Black win against this mysterious Island Stallion? You'll have to read The Black Stallion Challenged to find out!

This is one of Walter Farley's greatest books! It's about the Black racing against Flame and who will win. Half of the crowd thinks Flame will win. This is the Black's greatest horse he has ever raced against. The only Black Stallion books as good or better than this one is The Black Stallion's Filly and The Black Stallion. I wish they would bring all of the Black Stallion books back out on print.

The Black Stallion and Flame, I'm sure when Farley first wrote these books that many fans probably wrote to him inquiring when and if The Black and Flame would ever meet on the race track. I'd say the meeting of these two horses was even more anticipated then The Black racing his first son, Satan.

In the book Steve Duncan is trying to win a boat load of money so that he can buy the Island where Flame lives. The story opens up with a letter he has sent to Alec Ramsey; Steve wants to meet Alec with the hopes of maybe having a match race between the Black and Flame. Alec really doesn't think anything of it, figuring Flame is just some small horse and that Steve is just dreaming like many boys who want to have the world's fastest horse. When Alec meets Flame it becomes a different story. In this story the Black is still recovering from a tender foot or at least Henry is being extra carefully

The story is quite interesting and it will keep readers on their toes to see which horse sweeps across the finish line first. This book is the last time that Farley wrote about Flame and Steven Duncan, only the second time that The Black Stallion and The Island Stallion crossed over.

Awhile back we read The Black Stallion Challenged. It is number seventeen in the set of books written by Walter Farley. Walter Farley is best known for The Black Stallion, but he also wrote a set of stories about Flame, a horse hidden on an island in the Caribbean's. The Black Stallion Challenged is the second cross over story. Steve, the boy who rides Flame, wants to win $65,000 racing Flame so he can buy the island Flame lives on.

Alex, who owns the Black, gives Steve advice. Steve is new to the racing world and Alex tries to teach Steve all the little facets of racing that Alex has learned over years of racing the Black. Steve takes some of the advice. This being fiction we have a race between the Black and Flame, the two fastest horses in the world!

Walter Farley does a great job of telling the story. Most of his stories are basically about a big horse race. But each time he tells the story in a different way. We learn about how different jockeys ride, and how different horses approach the track. Some horses are excited and want to race, others are a bit fearful. Walter Farley spent years in the racing world and it shows.

In this story a filly stumbles and fractures one of her forelegs during a race because the jockey was pushing too hard. There is a whole chapter on the operation as the vet works on the leg. There is another chapter about the jockeys getting ready for the big race. Much of this chapter is told from the point of view of the man who runs the scales.

I have enjoyed every Walter Farley story I've read. This was no exception. It is well written and well paced. My daughters constantly wanted me to read another chapter. If you have liked any of the other Black Stallion or Flame stories, give The Black Stallion Challenged a try.

I was glued to the book the minute I picked it up. I was amazed at how well Walter Farley was able to place the story and help the readers understand what Alec feels when he is challened to race by Steve Duncan. You know what is going on all the time.

I got the book for Christmas and I finished it before school started up again. Every aspect of it is good. If you just want to curl up with a good book, this is the one.

I hope to be just as good a writer as Walter Farley. As far as horse books go, you can't get any better than him!

Many times I read and re-read all of the Black Stallion/Island Stallion books when I was a child. They gave me more pleasure than anything else I read in those early years. In my opinion they are much better children's literature than most of what is published today. I recommend them for young people without reservation. Every child, especially every child who likes horses, should have the whole series on his or her bookshelf.

This Black Stallion book is not as good as I expected. Alec acts like a know-it-all snob towords Steve. And at one point he tells Steve"You can't just race Flame. To ride in races you have to have years of training and experience" Which in reality,of course,is true,but where were Alec's "years of experience" when he races the Black at Chicago? By the time I got to the race,I wanted Flame to win. Overall,not a bad book, but two stars for the way Alec acted.(the Black is as good as ever)

I was thrilled when this book was finally released on Kindle. I have many of the Walter Farley books on my bookshelf, all of which I still love to reread, but I never owned this one-- I just checked it out of my school library repeatedly when I was a kid. Upon rereading, however, I have to conclude it was the gorgeous pencil illustrations in the original hardback (well worth hunting down a paper copy of the book to obtain!) rather than the story that attracted me to this one in my youth.

Unlike Farley's earlier books, The Black Stallion Challenged! is decidedly deficient in the plot department. It introduces the main idea of the book-- the Black being challenged by a mysterious red stallion named Flame-- in the first chapter, and then drops the plot thread and meanders through endless scenes which do nothing to move the story along.

There's a totally irrelevant scene in which a filly who means nothing to the plot has her broken leg repaired. There's an equally irrelevant chapter in which several top jockeys are interviewed on TV (Alec is one of them, but the chapter does nothing to forward the plot, nor do any of the other jockeys matter to the storyline). It feels as if Farley did a lot of research, and wanted to work that research in, but couldn't properly integrate it into the plotline. The book wanders aimlessly, endlessly, until at last Flame comes to Hialeah and the real story recommences. Unfortunately, at that point the book is nearly over.

The race between the Black and Flame-- Farley's two greatest equine creations-- should be the most exciting race in any of his books, and yet it pales next to the cross-country race between the Black and Sagr in The Black Stallion's Return, or the epic race featuring the Black, Eclipse, and Casey in The Black Stallion's Courage. There are too many irrelevant horses cluttering up the works-- we know none of them has a chance, yet most of the race description is about them. The book fails to focus tightly on the racetrack battle between Black and Flame, and the climactic chapter falls very flat as a result.

Overall, this is one of the weakest entries in the series. Two and a half stars.