Summer Reading Entry Three

The book I read over this summer was The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater. I really enjoyed this book and an excerpt from the book that would hook a reader is: “Tell me what it’s like. The race.” What it’s like is a battle. A mess of horses and men and blood. The fastest and strongest of what is left from two weeks of preparation on the sand. It’s the surf in your face, the deadly magic of November on your skin, the Scorpio drums in the place of your heartbeat. It’s the speed, if you’re lucky. It’s life and it’s death or it’s both and there’s nothing like it. Once upon a time, this moment this last light of evening the day before the race was the best moment of the year for me. The anticipation of the game to come. But that was when all I had to lose was my life” (Stiefvater 359). In this excerpt Kate asks Sean what the races will be like and he describes the race in a special way that in reality is exactly what happens in the races including this year’s race. I think this is a good excerpt because it shows the intensity of the races and what the races mean to a kid and everyone who races in them as well.