Customer Reviews

The Perfect Distance

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Okay, full disclosure - I met the author when she was about 10 and had a pony! We rode at the same barn, and I saw her over the years getting better and better, graduating to the junior eqs. Now, we "keep in touch" through her website and I read a column she writes.

But anyway - I LOVED THIS BOOK! The characters are wonderful and believable, esp. the main character seems like such a tormented soul with her heritage, her (lack of) self-confidence, and being pulled in different directions.

As a horse lover, one can relate to the psycho trainer, the barn gossip, the show thrills and chills.

I am fully an adult - this is not just for Young Adults, but anyone who loves horses and the horse show world. I think young adults will especially be able to relate to what Francie's going through.

Francie Martinez is a girl who can't say no, whether it's to collaborating on a cheating ring to the demands of her pushy, abrasive riding coach. Despite her ethnicity and her relative poverty, she is determined to make it to the Medals junior show jumping final and if possible, win. On the way, she must do some serious reevaluating of herself, her riding career and her future goals.

What I liked is that many cliches were sidestepped. The underdog did NOT win the blue, the ethically challenged trainer did NOT see the errors of his ways or get "punished." The conclusion is satisfying but wholly realistic. A fast paced read that young horse lovers will enjoy and unlike the Saddle Club series set in the "real world."

The Perfect Distance is not your average girl-loves-horses book. In fact, horses are really secondary here in this story of a girl growing up and finding herself. Francie has been around horses pretty much her entire life. Her father, who is Mexican, works as a stable manager for West Hills...which happens to be run by one of the best equestrian trainers in the business.

Francie works as a groom to help pay for her lessons with Rob, the rather ill-tempered trainer. That separates her from the other students, who are mostly rich kids, as does the fact that she is half-Mexican (though this makes more of a difference in Francie's mind than to most of the other riders). Francie is a good, solid rider, but Rob pays her little attention, instead concentrating on the spoiled Tara.

When Colby, a new rich but not-at-all-spoiled kid comes to train, Francie is confused. She wavers between being ashamed of her heritage and being proud of all her father has accomplished. She doesn't tell Colby at first that she's also a groom and not just another student, until Tara (i.e. the spoiled rotten) outs her.

In the meantime, they are all on edge as the finals approach. Who will make it? Who won't? Will Katie, Francie's good friend and fellow student, snatch up Colby or will Francie make a move, even though her father doesn't approve?

Add in some family conflict as well, as Francie's dad is determined that she go to college, even though she'd rather just ride and you've got a lot cooking in this plot. And then there's Rob...will he stoop to new lows to get what he wants?

This is a good, solid story from a writer that seems to specialize in conflicted girls growing up (Whitney also wrote See You Down the Road). Francie's troubles are real and heartfelt and the reader will root for her, even when they can see that she's making mistakes. Recommended for readers aged 12 and up.

Kimberly Pauley, YA Books Goddess @ YABooksCentral.com

Having competed in Big Eq classes, I can completely relate to what Francie is going through in this book. What's particularly impressive about The Perfect Distance, though, is that the author manages to sensitively weave issues like 'fitting in', ethnicity, discrimination and cheating into the story.

The language and behavior of the characters are all believable, although I don't know many dads who are as patient, giving and almost-perfect as Francie's! While there wasn't a lot of suspense built up (no nail-biting, 'who will win'?! moments), that didn't detract from the interest of the story, and I liked the fact that the ending wasn't predictable. I also like the way Francie has to come to terms with the discovery that her trainer and idol really isn't the man she believed he was.

Overall, this book is well-written, interesting, and would appeal to all riders, and even most teen girls who just like horses. I just wish they'd change the cover, it's quite awful.

Francie Martinez is a groom at West Hills, one of the best places to train in the country. She's also a rider, but the distinction is her father is the West Hills barn manager, with absolutely no money to pay for the kind of training one needs to make it to the Maclay Finals and onward to Grand Prix. Francie is good, but she's not as good as Tara, the great West Hills hope for their trainer, Rob. Rob is the equestrian version of God, and Francie spends most of her lessons scrambling for his attention the way he lavishes it on Tara.

It's pretty apparent straight off that Francie isn't exactly comfortable in her skin. Literally and figuratively. She's half Mexican, and she bluntly points out that there are no Hispanic riders in America. To make matters worse, there's the obvious distinction between groom and rider. Francie isn't a working student, and whenever she tries to break out of her confines to interact with Colby (who is gorgeous and funny and rich and a good rider in his own right) her father slaps her down because he's been there and done that with her nonexistent mother, and look where that wound up. She's having a hard time balancing being both groom and rider, and people like Tara make the distinction obvious whenever they can.

Then there's school. Francie is a public school kid, whereas the other kids at West Hills are either privately tutored (her best friend, Katie, and Colby) or they dropped out to focus on riding (Tara). But even at school, Francie has a hard time fitting in. She's always focused on riding and school work, therefore she's not around, leaving her very existence mostly a mystery to the rest of the local kids. This leaves Francie as eager to please, and a basket case when she's put on the spot. It's shocking she can handle the ordeals of a normal day, much less the pressures of a show.

Despite these things, it's obvious that Francie is a good rider, and she's justified in dreaming of beating Tara in the Maclay Finals. But the book is more than this. Unlike just about every other book involving girls, horses, show jumping, and the mention of Olympic dreams, it doesn't end like you expect, and it manages to hit a completely different note than the scores of other books that have meagerly tried and miserably failed at the same point. It makes the kind of note that doesn't blatantly say: it doesn't matter what personal growth this character makes because she's going to win anyway because she's irritatingly perfect and you can be too!

All I can say at this point is to go find it and read it. You'll be happy you did.

Kim Ablon Whitney's novel, The Perfect Distance follows Francie Martinez, a young Mexican-American woman on her way to the Maclay Finals (the granddaddy of all junior equestrian eventing). Francie trains at the same farm where she is also a groom resulting in prejudice behavior from her barn mates. Through life altering relationships and events Francie discovers that all she needs to win the Finals is confidence.

Having been a competitor at the Maclay Finals, Whitney is able to use personal knowledge to project the stresses of competing to the readers. Whitney explains all the horse jargon, but does it in a way that the novel does not read like a textbook or dictionary. The topics of sex, alcohol, and bulimia are addressed in the novel making it better suited for a more mature audience. Having said that, the vocabulary could be beefed up a little to accommodate an older age group. Being an avid rider, I can say that Whitney's novel is a true-to-life documentation of the struggles riders face while trying to compete and maintain a 2.5 grade point average.
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Except for starting out shaky and dropping some of the plot points so agonizingly built up, this book was pretty good. Rob, the trainer, was so realistic (and horrible) I was reminded of all the reasons I hesitate to compete: the lack of respect of and thought for the horse and its wellbeing, the verbal and emotional abuse that so many riders put themselves through just to be "the best," and the snobbishness and racism that are such a prominent part of the horse industry.

This book was wholly satisfying in a way that many "horse books" can't seem to reach.

Essentially, it all comes down to Francie - a horse loving 17 year old whose father is the groom at the elite West Hills Stable - her friend Katie - who is rich and can't get over the fact that Francie is poorer and a better rider - and the new boy, Colby - who is "amazing" and likes Francie, not Katie.

I was pleased that this book avoided some cliches like Francie actually winning, or Colby staying back at the farms for her, or Katie magically getting over herself, or Rob getting due punishment for his outrageous behavoir. Thankfully, none of these things happened.

However, I was slightly disappointed that the author had to drag in the most cliched horse-book cliche in the history of equine fiction: insurance fraud. Many, many horse books seem to dance around this subject.

I highly recommend this book to anyone - the author did a fantastic job at realism! If you aren't too nerdy with all the technical show jumping terms, don't be afraid - it won't prevent you from enjoying this outstanding novel.

I absolutely loved The Perfect Distance... I read it in one sitting! It covered the world of high-level junior competition surprisingly well. The only thing it didn't have going for it was that main charachter Francie didn't have a very strong relationship with her horse; but I also know that not many show circuit riders have a deep bond with their steeds.

Apart from that one small thing, I found Ablon Whitney's work to be a masterpeice. This is a must-read for horsey teens!

I loved this book! As an aspiring equitation rider hoping to do the "big eq's", or major junior riding competitions, this book gave some great insight into all the hard work involved in riding at the nation's highest levels. The storyline was fun and interesting, and the details about the horses were correct because they were actualy written by a rider, which is hard to come by. Overall, I loved it!