Racing Stripes

by David Schmidt

A feel-good family movie in the tradition of BABE. Part live-action, part CGI, it's the story of a baby zebra who dreams of becoming a racehorse. Starring the voices of Frankie Muniz and Mandy Moore.

When a baby zebra is abandoned by his traveling circus, he finds himself lost and alone in the Kentucky heartland. But a kind farmer and his daughter rescue him and bring him home to their barn. There he lives among the farm animals, believing he's a horse like any other. His name? Stripes, of course!

Stripes grows up believing he's born to run. But he is teased about his unusual appearance by the snooty thoroughbreds at the horse farm next door. Determined to prove himself, Stripes begins to train for the greatest race in the world... the Kentucky Derby.

Genres: Animals

112 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2005

Reviews

[Jenna_readit · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cute book for kids

[JKR · Rating 3 out of 5]

Predictable but still quite enjoyable.

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this book. I was surprised to see that the book was almost exactly like the movie. I figured that the writer would take some liberty to add parts. I liked the pictures from the movie, in the middle of the book. Although some of the pictures were from parts of the story that had not happened yet, which was awkward. These pictures help with visualization and serve as a nice goal to work towards. I would use this book to talk about how anyone can work to achieve their dreams. I would talk about how Stripes did so well because the other animals helped him and kept him motivated. I would talk about how the horses bullied him because he looked different. I would continue to talk about racism and bigotry because the other animals judged him by his appearance and he ended up winning the race. It is nice to use an animal to begin this conversation because it takes away the awkwardness of thinking about people. I did not like that they renamed the Kentucky Derby to be the Kentucky Open, which is the name of a golf tournament. I also know that there are no farms near Churchill Downs so that would make it so Stripes could not see the racetrack.

It would also be fun to do activities related to horse racing and helping others. We could do a collection drive to benefit horses.

http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/bo...
Interest Level
Grades 2 - 5
Reading Level
Grade level Equivalent: Not Available
Lexile® Measure: Not Available
DRA: Not Available
Guided Reading: Not Available

[Kiana Bolognese · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book Racing Stripes, a non fiction book written by David Schmidt is a wonderful thrilling book. The story is about a baby Zebra found on a ,road at night after the circus trailer left him behind by accident. When a farmer from down the road stopped and saw the baby zebra and took him home to take care of him. From then on the farmer's daughter bonded with the zebra and named him Stripes. The daughter wanted to race just like her mother who passed away and so did Stripes. The pair had the will and the drive to want to win. It was a very inspiring and thrilling book. I enjoyed this book because of the drive it had and kept me on my toes the whole time.

[Johnny Bennett · Rating 2 out of 5]

Given the source material, Racing Stripes as a novelization of the movie with the same name probably is pretty good. But in all honesty, it's still got that Disney cheesiness. That everything is wrong in the world but it'll all be OK in the end. Kids may like it but it isn't going to win any awards. On the other hand, I don't begrudge the time spent reading it.

[Madelyn B · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is about a girl who tries to train a zebra for the biggest horse race ever .will racing stripe win the race or will he not.



i love this book because i love to watch horse racing on TV and this book is really entertaining. i recommend this book to anyone who loves horse racing.

[2Caitlyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

it is about this baby zebra that is forgotten and so a farmer finds the baby zebra and takes it to the farm later on as it gets older the farmer gets to racing it and said that this one will win the race this year.

[Willie Veal · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book as very very interesting and funny...