Rating: 
Summary: Good plotline, but its end was unsatisfying
Review: This was a great book, and I really liked how it progressed, but at the end everything stopped way too abrubtly. It was almost like S.E. Hinton wanted to kill off all her characters, but settled with ending a blossoming relationship, killing a horse, and taking a person's newfound view on life and destroying it. I think that the end of a book is the most important part, and this one left me unsatisfied and angry at the author.
Rating: 
Summary: Taming the Star Runner
Review: This was an excellent book! I usually don't read S.E. Hinton but I picked it up because I love books about city kids going to the country. It's about a troubled youth named Travis who is sent to his uncle's ranch in Oklahoma after the attempted murder of his step father. After a rocky start, Travis meets a girl named Casey down at his uncle's barn. Casey's got this crazy horse, the Star Runner, that she shows in jumping. I really loved the characters. They were pretty typical S.E. Hinton, which is not bad. They seemed so real, especially the relationship between Travis and Casey. I thought it was really funny, the way that Travis dealt with the horses (and his comical cat Motorboat). The book was also very serious at times, dealing with a lot of teen issues. I loved the fact that Travis was a writer. All in all, a great book!
Rating: 
Summary: Taming The Star Runner
Review: Travis is a violent kid he lashes out on his stepfather with a fire poker and got arrested as well as banished from his home leaving him a newcomer on his uncle's ranch. He will stay till the next summer with his uncle and his cousin Chris. Travis will experience a whole new life style. None of the people there will respect him if he keeps his city style going. Along his way Travis finds a new friend Casey, who runs riding lessons at the ranch. "When life becomes hard don't give up hope keep on striding to achieve your goal."
Rating:
Summary: Juvenile delinquency or just misunderstood?
Review: Travis is unknowingly traveling along a path of self distruction when nearly murdering his step father wakes him to reality and he takes a stab at a second chance. Yes, a new environment, new friends, new school, and the chance to make a change. So often when second chances are given to young people--it is without a hope of making a go of it. They are put right back into the environment and friendships that got them there in the first place. Travis travels to a ranch, leaving his friends behind. They serve as a comparer because as Travis gradually changes for the better, his friends continue in their paths of destruction. The very thing that causes Travis to strike out at his step father is also his tool for escaping his fate--writing. Travis continues to present his "two faces"--I'm tough--I'm a writer--until he finds the love that allows him to be honest and allow himself to be just himself. No act. No tough guy. Just Travis, a young man who needs love and a new chance at life
Rating:
Summary: review
Review: What I thought after reading this book was that it could have been a really, really great book. Instead, it was just great. It wasn't as good as Hinton's first three books, THE OUTSIDERS, THAT WAS THEN, THIS IS NOW, and RUMBLE FISH. The ending of those books really had an impact on you - when Dallas falls under the streetlight, Mark goes to jail, and what happens to Rusty-James and Motorcycle Boy after breaking into the pet store. The ending of TAMING THE STAR RUNNER wasn't as powerful. I think if Hinton had made this book 300 pages instead of 180, it would have been much better. What I mean by that is that there wasn't enough detail. The characters were good but you didn't get to know them well enough. You're surprised when Travis falls in love with Casey because you hardly know who Casey is. The good thing about the characters is that they're realistic, and if there had been more details about them they would have been really great. It had a really good plot, too, and that's why it could have been really great. But...it wasn't as deep as Hinton's other books, except for maybe TEX, and the ending seemed kind of forced. There wasn't enough about Joe and especially the twins in the beginning for it to work well. (It also kind of annoyed me that at one point the book said the twins were aways uneasy when they were apart, because I am a twin and we really like to be apart. I think most twins get along pretty well but they're ok with not being together sometimes.) Again, a good thing about the book was that it was realistic. I like the part when Travis's uncle says that Travis's mother loves him and Travis said, "She had a baby sixteen years ago and she still loves it," because I think that's how most mothers are.
Rating:
Summary: Juveniles--continue to do the wrong thing at the right time!
Review: Yes, S.E. Hinton hit the nail on the head again regarding young people of our time as she shares the misadventures of Travis. Travis is a young man wanting to avoid trouble while tempting fate.
He loves, even cultivates, the bad guy image, but needs love and acceptance. Travis gets an honest second chance with his Uncle Ken. He travels to a new environment and learns that his life style isn't as acceptable as he had once thought. In fact, he even begins to doubt his own good looks. Much needed love is found on the ranch--also self examination reveals hurtful flaws. The driving force behind Travis is his endeavors in writing. Writing nearly causes him to murder his step father and at the same time provides an avenue of escape. Travis shares his "two faces" as he learns to fit into the ranch scene. Travis--the juvenile delinquent or published novelist?
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