Rating: 
Summary: Review: Eight Seconds
Review:
Eight Seconds by Jean Ferris (Harcourt, Inc., 2000) tells the story of John Ritchie who lives on a working ranch near the Rocky Mountains with his parents and four sisters. He is 18 years old and feels out of place for many reasons. Besides being an only boy with so many sisters, he had to miss a year of school because of heart surgery and, so, is just finishing his junior year instead of graduating with the students who are his own age. His father shows him favoritism and has high expectations of him. His mother is inflexible and disapproves of the favoritism shown to him by his father.
John loves working with horses and takes an opportunity to attend a rodeo school during the summer. He looks forward to escaping his familiar life for six days and plans to enter the many rodeos that will be held at the upcoming county fairs. Bobby, his best friend, attends the school, too, and also, Russ, the local, big-mouthed troublemaker. John and Bobby meet Matt and Kit. Matt and Bobby opt for cow roping while John and Kit decide to learn how to ride bulls. John and Kit become fast friends, but when John returns home he learns from his older sister that Kit is gay. Throughout the rest of the summer, the boys continue to see each other at the fairs where they participate in the rodeos. John struggles with what he has learned about Kit. Russ finds out and Kit's sexual orientation becomes common knowledge and a point of contention.
The second half of the book deals with John's attempts to come to grips with this new problem in his life and how that process reveals truths and changes his existence. The story, in an unoffending manner, gives insight into a growing social issue.
Rating: 
Summary: An Engaging Read
Review: A good book should take you to someplace new; new surroundings, new emotional territories, new ideas. Jean Ferris has done that in this book. In addition to the slightly exotic (to an Easterner, at least) world of Rodeo and Bull Riding,the delicate handling of a young man's heart facing a truth that will change him forever, is beautifully rendered. Johnny's thoughts on realizing that he is gay, and that facing that truth isn't nearly as bad as denying it, say it all: "Maybe love was love, no matter who was doing it, and if you found it, you should be glad, because it wasn't such an easy thing to find." A sensitive subject, sensitively handled. I hope this book gains a wide readership. It touched my heart.
Rating: 
Summary: ok book
Review: I was very impressed with this relatively short story. This is the story of John and Kit. John is a year behind in school due to heart surgery when he was a baby. He is eighteen. Kit is a college student who is going to become a veterinarian. The Plot to this story is: John feels he is out of step with the world in Montana. He often finds himself in fights with bullies, where he holds his own, but he is generally viewed by everyone as "Gentleman John," a nice guy. John loves his family, but his older sisters are either married or in college, and his younger sister, Clemmie, who adores him, is a pest. John still plays with her, however. He gets along with his parents, but his mother expects too much from him. ... his father has arranged for him to attend Rodeo School so that he can more successfully compete in rodeos at local fairs. He goes to this camp with his best friend, Bobby, and Russ, a bully with whom he often fights, also is attending. ... . This was a very good, quick read. The story is one that keeps you engaged! It also allowed me to learn a great deal about the rodeo circuit, and how the guys train to ride the bulls.
Rating:
Summary: Very Good, Cute, Easy Read.. GREAT Story!
Review: I was very impressed with this relatively short story. This is the story of John and Kit. John is a year behind in school due to heart surgery when he was a baby. He is eighteen. Kit is a college student who is going to become a veterinarian. The Plot to this story is: John feels he is out of step with the world in Montana. He often finds himself in fights with bullies, where he holds his own, but he is generally viewed by everyone as "Gentleman John," a nice guy. John loves his family, but his older sisters are either married or in college, and his younger sister, Clemmie, who adores him, is a pest. John still plays with her, however. He gets along with his parents, but his mother expects too much from him. ... his father has arranged for him to attend Rodeo School so that he can more successfully compete in rodeos at local fairs. He goes to this camp with his best friend, Bobby, and Russ, a bully with whom he often fights, also is attending. ... . This was a very good, quick read. The story is one that keeps you engaged! It also allowed me to learn a great deal about the rodeo circuit, and how the guys train to ride the bulls.
Rating:
Summary: A BBYA contender on the much-needed topic of tolerance
Review: John thinks that when he had open-heart surgery as a child, maybe the doctors forget to replace an essential piece, because he doesn't want to marry Kelsey, his girlfriend who is pushing for an after-graduation commitment. Eager to escape, John is thrilled when his dad signs him up for rodeo camp, where he discovers an odd and deep kinship with Kit.
Upon his return home, John is stunned to learn that the confident and poised young man is openly gay at his college. John is forced to make fast and tough choices about his views on homosexuality as the news spreads. The local bully, Russ, begins tormenting Kit at local rodeos - and then finds John guilty by association. In a startling climax, John blames Kit for his confusion and scapegoathood and attacks him, pushed over the edge by Russ's comments.
It takes a little too long for the protagonist to realize what the reader already suspects: that John too may be gay. His inner turmoil is only beginning when the book ends. To give her credit, Ferris doesn't take the easy way out, and the ending is not what most readers will be rooting for, but it is a fitting one that will hopefully tug at heartstrings and increase awareness and tolerance.
The book is a step in the right direction for teaching tolerance and breaking down stereotypes. The cover art is a bit juvenile. The cowboy on the cover looks like a scrawy kid in a too-big hat, and may be a turnoff to teens, and they will miss out on a wonderful story about the things you can't control - and the things you can. Eight Seconds is definitely another contender for best books for young adults from Ferris, and the subject matter itself demands purchase; libraries with small budget may want to wait for the paperback in the hopes of a more attractive cover.
Rating:
Summary: Deaing with issues
Review: John went to a rodeo school to learn to ride bulls. John learns His new best friend, Kit is gay. Now John has to deal with riding bulls and pressure from his friends and family because they think being gay is indecent . Now riding bulls is easy compared to dealing with reality. He has to deal with his own sexuality and find out what is more important to him. What his friends and family think,or his friendship with Kit. I liked this book because I am interested in rodeo,and suggest anyone else who is interested in a rodeo drama to read this book.
Rating:
Summary: Deaing with issues
Review: John went to a rodeo school to learn to ride bulls. John learns His new best friend, Kit is gay. Now John has to deal with riding bulls and pressure from his friends and family because they think being gay is indecent . Now riding bulls is easy compared to dealing with reality. He has to deal with his own sexuality and find out what is more important to him. What his friends and family think,or his friendship with Kit. I liked this book because I am interested in rodeo,and suggest anyone else who is interested in a rodeo drama to read this book.
Rating:
Summary: ok book
Review: The book Eight Seconds was a good book about some kids the for there high school graduation present they got to go to bull riding school. They went to the school and learned a lot about how to be a good bull rider. But while they were at the school they learned that one of their friends was gay. At first only one of them knew but eventually the others found out. Not everyone agreed with that kids decision on being gay. That caused a lot of problems throughout the book.
In this books there was a lot of imagery you really thought that you where there watching the kids ride the bulls. At one point one of the kids fell off a bull and the bull was running after him and you really thought that you were there watching it.
This books had some emotions that were stirred up because of the conflict of one of the kids being gay. Not all of the other kids thought that it was ok for him to be gay because of this there were some fights that started.
I think that this book would be good for kids to read who are around 8 - 12. It was a good book and there was a lot that you could get out of it. It also was interesting to lean some about bull riding.
In all I thought that this was a good book. But a lot of the book you could guess what was going to happen. Also a lot of the book had the same things happening over and over again.
Rating:
Summary: A Whole New World
Review: The world of bull riding is not anything that I'm familiar with. Growing up in the suburbs, my life was skateboarding and walking down to the U-Totem to pick up the latest Archie comic book. But one great thing about dating is that you constantly and endlessly exposed to the new. My boyfriend, a rodeo fan, picked up this book on a recent trip and devoured it, and handing it to me saying "Read this". I did, and found a beautiful, intriguing coming out tale. John Ritchie is the main character, a normal teenage boy whose life on the ranch is seemingly idyllic. He has a family that loves him, chores to do, and a vision for his future, well as strong a vision that a teenage boy could have. His father suggests that he attend a rodeo school, which John cannot wait to attend. Going with his best friend Bobby, he meets Kit, a tall, strong cowboy with whom he feels an immediate attachment. Kit and John become friends, and spend their time at rodeo camp discussing how they've always felt different from others. Upon returning home from camp, John learns his new friend, challenging him to the core, both about his beliefs about homosexuality and his own internal struggling with it. Ferris does something wonderful with this story. She allows John's eventual discovery of who he is to come slowly and naturally. It's both sweet and without much fanfare, but powerful enough to launch John on the rocky and uneven path of acceptance we've all walked. For anyone just coming out, this book shows that path, a small section of it, as a positive step forward. Set in the world of rodeos, this book also serves as a primer for those of us city folk uninitiated with that world. The rodeo scenes were authentic and honest, and why anyone would want to sit on a bull for eight seconds is beyond me, but you appreciate the characters desires to do so. Eight Seconds is a powerful, simple coming out story, with an interesting, unexpected ending, that left me thinking for days, as I'm sure it would you.
Rating:
Summary: Great Book
Review: This book was one of the most brilliant stories I ever read. It wasnt the fact that it was set in a rodeo, or that there were fights througout the story, it was the fact that this story is about the friendship between 2 gay guys that both end up in very diffrent situations. I think its an inspiring, exciting, romantic, and sad book all mixed into one.
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