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Guys Read: The Distance
CJ just blew the half-mile relay for his track team, but the race on his mind is the one that's happening off the field in this short story from all-star author Jacqueline Woodson.
- GenresMiddle Grade
Audible Audio
First published July 10, 2012
7 people are currently reading
103 people want to read
About the author
Jacqueline Woodson
90 books9,126 followersI used to say I’d be a teacher or a lawyer or a hairdresser when I grew up but even as I said these things, I knew what made me happiest was writing.
I wrote on everything and everywhere. I remember my uncle catching me writing my name in graffiti on the side of a building. (It was not pretty for me when my mother found out.) I wrote on paper bags and my shoes and denim binders. I chalked stories across sidewalks and penciled tiny tales in notebook margins. I loved and still love watching words flower into sentences and sentences blossom into stories.
I also told a lot of stories as a child. Not “Once upon a time” stories but basically, outright lies. I loved lying and getting away with it! There was something about telling the lie-story and seeing your friends’ eyes grow wide with wonder. Of course I got in trouble for lying but I didn’t stop until fifth grade.
That year, I wrote a story and my teacher said “This is really good.” Before that I had written a poem about Martin Luther King that was, I guess, so good no one believed I wrote it. After lots of brouhaha, it was believed finally that I had indeed penned the poem which went on to win me a Scrabble game and local acclaim. So by the time the story rolled around and the words “This is really good” came out of the otherwise down-turned lips of my fifth grade teacher, I was well on my way to understanding that a lie on the page was a whole different animal — one that won you prizes and got surly teachers to smile. A lie on the page meant lots of independent time to create your stories and the freedom to sit hunched over the pages of your notebook without people thinking you were strange.
Lots and lots of books later, I am still surprised when I walk into a bookstore and see my name on a book’s binder. Sometimes, when I’m sitting at my desk for long hours and nothing’s coming to me, I remember my fifth grade teacher, the way her eyes lit up when she said “This is really good.” The way, I — the skinny girl in the back of the classroom who was always getting into trouble for talking or missed homework assignments — sat up a little straighter, folded my hands on the desks, smiled and began to believe in me.
I wrote on everything and everywhere. I remember my uncle catching me writing my name in graffiti on the side of a building. (It was not pretty for me when my mother found out.) I wrote on paper bags and my shoes and denim binders. I chalked stories across sidewalks and penciled tiny tales in notebook margins. I loved and still love watching words flower into sentences and sentences blossom into stories.
I also told a lot of stories as a child. Not “Once upon a time” stories but basically, outright lies. I loved lying and getting away with it! There was something about telling the lie-story and seeing your friends’ eyes grow wide with wonder. Of course I got in trouble for lying but I didn’t stop until fifth grade.
That year, I wrote a story and my teacher said “This is really good.” Before that I had written a poem about Martin Luther King that was, I guess, so good no one believed I wrote it. After lots of brouhaha, it was believed finally that I had indeed penned the poem which went on to win me a Scrabble game and local acclaim. So by the time the story rolled around and the words “This is really good” came out of the otherwise down-turned lips of my fifth grade teacher, I was well on my way to understanding that a lie on the page was a whole different animal — one that won you prizes and got surly teachers to smile. A lie on the page meant lots of independent time to create your stories and the freedom to sit hunched over the pages of your notebook without people thinking you were strange.
Lots and lots of books later, I am still surprised when I walk into a bookstore and see my name on a book’s binder. Sometimes, when I’m sitting at my desk for long hours and nothing’s coming to me, I remember my fifth grade teacher, the way her eyes lit up when she said “This is really good.” The way, I — the skinny girl in the back of the classroom who was always getting into trouble for talking or missed homework assignments — sat up a little straighter, folded my hands on the desks, smiled and began to believe in me.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
February 21, 2026
I’m not sure what happened here, but The Distance from the Guys Read collection left me completely lost—and not in a "lost in the story" kind of way. More of a "why am I reading this?" kind of way.
It was disjointed, unengaging, and honestly, just awful. After a half-term of some pretty rough reads, this one might have been the breaking point!
It was disjointed, unengaging, and honestly, just awful. After a half-term of some pretty rough reads, this one might have been the breaking point!
December 1, 2018
Eh. I read a different, really great Guys Read short story so I was expecting much more. So annoyed that every middle grade or YA novel now has to have either the F-word or at least one lesbian or gay couple!
June 25, 2018
Short & Funny
April 7, 2022
Read as an audiobook and I was really bored the whole time. This is the kind of book I think only anybody who has ran or liked track and field will enjoy.
April 4, 2024
A really great book for children and even adults. This story speaks to the power of coaching and mentorship. This child couldn’t understand why the coach expected what the child thought was too much. The child wanted to settle into what was comfortable but his coach had other plans and wasn’t address to push the child to be the best.
Eventually the childs avoidance of the task turned into a belief that he could accomplish it.
Sometimes having the right people around you, who believe in you, is all the push you need in life.
Eventually the childs avoidance of the task turned into a belief that he could accomplish it.
Sometimes having the right people around you, who believe in you, is all the push you need in life.
December 27, 2013
Reading about track was a nice change of pace.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews