Colt [Paperback]

Nancy Springer (Author)

Book Description

Age Level: 10 and up

Colt Vittorio has never run a race, or even walked down the street on his own. Colt has spina bifida, and sees the world from a wheelchair. Then his mother signs him up for a special riding program. "An excellent portrayal of a young person struggling with the emotional and social ramifications of a serious disease".--Booklist. An IRA Young Adult's Choice; Winner of the Joan Fassler Memorial Book Award.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 4-8-- Colt's story is launched with his trademark whine, "I don't want to!" Handicapped with spina bifida, he resents how adults totally control him. He fearfully resists therapeutic horseback riding, but a few minutes on an Appaloosa named Liverwurst changes his life. The contrary Colt is a complex character, ruled by conflicting moods of anxiety, curiosity, and embarrassment about his condition. He feels helpless physically and emotionally when his mother remarries a man with two children. Riding gives him freedom and the opportunity to master a skill. He savors his newfound independence and fights to continue the risky sport, proving his mettle when he rescues his new stepbrother following an accident. In a matter-of-fact style, Springer transforms Colt from a grouchy victim to a likable boy. Despite a debilitating situation, he gains a passion for living. Readers will be affected by his triumphs and failures, changing their initial sympathy for Colt to admiration. Recommend this uplifting story to those who want "another" after Jodie's Journey (HarperCollins, 1990) by Colin Thiele. --Charlene Strickland, formerly at Albuquerque Public Library , NM
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Kirkus Reviews

Colt, who has spina bifida, is introduced to riding in a special program for handicapped children. Reluctant at first, he soon learns that being on a horse not only strengthens his muscles but empowers him with new independence and courage, a better route to self-identity than his former brattiness. Meanwhile, his mother Audrey marries Brad, a gentle, sympathetic man with a teenage son (``Rosie'') and a daughter Colt's age. What would normally be a minor incident--Colt's mount jolts him when he starts to trot--is life-threatening for Colt, and Audrey reluctantly decides that the riding must stop. Colt becomes despondent, but then Brad comes up with an especially safe mount and the family agrees that, as Colt has pleaded, the rewards of his riding are worth the risks. Indeed--in a satisfying scene dramatizing how Colt can overcome his limitations, he rescues his stepbrother when the two are alone together and Rosie is injured. The plot here is familiar, the details concerning spina bifida obviously purposive. But Springer's characters, striving to create a loving new family, come alive as exceptionally warm, nice people who try to solve their unavoidable problems without dissipating emotional energy in rivalries or self-pity. Sweet but not saccharine: a satisfying horse story with fine extra dimensions. (Fiction. 10-13) -- Copyright ©1991, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 10 and up
  
• Paperback: 128 pages
• Publisher: Puffin (February 1, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0140364803
• ISBN-13: 978-0140364804
• Product Dimensions: 7.5 x 4.9 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,337,022 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

"Conform, go crazy, or become an artist." I have a rubber stamp declaring those words, and they pretty much delineate my life. Conforming was the thing to do when I was raised, in the fifties. Even my mother, who spent her days painting animal portraits at an easel in the corner of the kitchen, tried to conform via housecleaning, bridge parties, and a new outfit every spring. My father, who was born into a British-mannered Protestant family in southern Ireland, emigrated to America as a young man and idolized the "melting pot" because at last he fit in. Once in a rare while he recited "The Ballad of Reading Gaol" or told a tale of a leprechaun, but most of the time he was an earnest naturalized American who expected exemplary behavior of his children. My mother was a charming Pollyanna who would not entertain negative sentiments in herself or anyone around her. As their only girl and the baby of the family, I was coddled, yet hardly ever got a chance to be other than excruciatingly good.

My "conform" phase lasted right into adulthood. When I was thirteen, my parents bought a small motel near Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, and I spent most of my teen years helping them make beds and clean rooms. I did not date until I went to college -- Gettysburg College, all of seven miles from home. it was the height of the sixties, and I grew my hair long, but eschewed pot, protests, and "happenings." Instead, I married a preacher's son who was himself conforming by studying for the ministry. Within a few years I was Rev. Springer's wife, complete with offspringers, living in a country parsonage in southern York County, PA.

Here beginneth the "go crazy" phase.

Because I had never been allowed any negative emotions, I began to hear "voices" in my head. First they whispered "divorce" (not permissible), and later they hissed "suicide". They scared me silly. I couldn't sleep; images of knives and torture floated in front of my eyes even during the daytime; something roared like an animal inside my ears; my wrists hurt; I saw blood seeping out of the walls; panic jolted me like a cattle goad out of nowhere. Is it necessary to add that I was clinically depressed? The doctor gave me Valium and sent me to a shrink. The shrink took me off the Valium and told me I had a problem with anger. (No duh.) The next doctor zombied me on the numbing antidepressants which were available at that time. The next shrink said I had an adjustment problem. And so on, for several years, during which I somehow managed to stay alive, take care of my kids, handle the vagaries of my husband, sew clothing and grow vegetables to get by financially, cook, can preserves, show up at church, do mounds of laundry and publish "The White Hart" and "The Silver Sun"--yet not one of the doctors of shrinks ever suggested that I might be a strong person, let alone a writer. All of them were intent on "helping" poor little me "adjust" to being a housewife, mother, and pastor's wife.

Eventually I became resigned to the fact (as I perceived it) that I was an evil, sinful person with horrible things going on inside my head, and I stopped trying to fix me. I stopped going to doctors or therapists. Somehow I found courage--or desperation--to stop trying to conform or adjust or live a role.

"I am going to start taking an hour or two first thing in the morning to do my writing," I said to my husband.

"Fine," he said. He had reached the point where he would agree with whatever to humor the neurotic wife; to him it was just another of my brain farts. But to me it was the most important sentence I ever spoke. With that statement I stopped being a housewife who sometimes stole time to write, and I started being a writer.

Conform, go crazy--or become an artist.

By becoming a writer--by becoming who I truly was--I became well.

It was so simple. Although it did take years, of course; it takes a long time for good things to grow. Trees. Books. Me. Odd thing about books; they not only nourish growth but show it happening. In "The Black Beast, The Golden Swan" and many other of my early novels, you can see me dealing with the yang/yin nature of good and evil, struggling to accept my own shadow. In "Chains of Gold" and "The Hex Witch of Seldom" I start writing as a woman, no longer identifying only with male main characters. In a number of children's books I come to terms with my own childhood. And in "Apocalypse"--whoa, what a fierce, dark fantasy novel, the first thing I wrote after my income from writing enabled my husband to leave the ministry. I hadn't thought of myself as repressed when I was a pastor's wife, but obviously something broke loose when I shed that role. "Larque on the Wing"--whoa again, another breakthrough book that spiraled straight out of my muddled middle-aged psyche and took me places I'd never dreamed were in me.

It's been a long time since those days when I thought I was an evil person. I know better now, and I love and trust me even to the extent of writing "Fair Peril"--a more perilous novel than I knew at the time, interfacing all too closely with my life. Written two years before the fact, it foresees my husband's infidelity and my divorce. The most painful irony I've ever faced is that once I gained my selfhood, I lost my lifelong partner. He had supported me through episodes that would have sent most men screaming and running, but once I became well and strong, he transferred his loyalty to a skinny, neurotic waif all to similar to the young woman I once was. After supporting him through twenty-seven years of stinky socks, automotive yearnings, miscellaneous foibles, and the career change that put him where she could cry on his shoulder, I found this a bit hard to take. But I wouldn't go back to being Ms. Pitiful. Not for anything.

Now married to a rather remarkable second husband, after living 46 years in Pennsylvania I moved in 2007 to the Florida panhandle, where I spent a year living in a small apartment above the aforementioned husband's hangar in an exceedingly rural (swamps, egrets, snakes and alligators) airport. Now we have a real house about a mile from the airport on higher ground featuring tremendously tall longleaf pine trees with rattlesnakes and scorpions underneath them. Life is an adventure and I mean that sincerely.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Unique view: horseback riding for kids with disabilities, July 31, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Colt (Paperback)

Hundreds of horse books exist for children and teens, but this book addresses a unique aspect -- horseback riding programs for those with disabilities. Colt has spina bifida and is terrified of the idea of being on a horse, but once he begins riding, he discovers that it opens new doors for him. Horseback riding soon means a great deal to him. This is a well-written, solid book. Based on my experience volunteering with a similar program, it is also accurate. Plus it contains enough action to hold readers' attention.

5.0 out of 5 stars a joyful, unique book, September 27, 2010

By 

poltroon "poltroon" (Mendocino County, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Colt (Paperback)

I've read a lot of horse books, even books about horses helping the handicapped, but few ring so true and honest as this one.

Colt is afraid of the horse - a big Appaloosa named Liverwurst -but he doesn't want to show it. He acts like a brat rather than admit his fear. Then, people pretend he isn't a brat because he has spina bifida and a wheelchair... which makes him even angrier. Liverwurst has an enormous ugly head and sneezes all over Colt. Not exactly a romantic beginning - but far better.

There's a lot of honest, raw feeling in this book, and plenty of funny moments too. It doesn't follow the classic Magickal kind of plot you might expect. Inconvenient Real Life is a factor. Colt is a real person - and his new stepbrother and stepsister are real people too, with real feelings and fears that are not always directly expressed. But, they love each other and learn to laugh with each other.

This is a whole hearted, enthusiastic 5, possibly a 6, and a great read for adults as well as kids.

5.0 out of 5 stars Heartwarming story, February 16, 2004

By 

Flame_926 "flame_926" (United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Colt (Paperback)

Colt is a disabled boy who suffers from spina bifida that makes him unable to get around without a wheelchair most of the time. He also suffers (in his opinion) from getting a new father after his biological dad left him and his mom when the disability was revealed by the doctors.

Overall the story was well done; it made you relate to the main character without feeling sorry for him and really showed that horses and kids can accomplish just about anything together. I recommend this book to any person assisting at a disabled riding stable.

Recommended reading age: 8-12 yrs.