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Siena Summer
by Ann Chandler
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When Angela arrives to spend a summer with her aunt and uncle in Italy before her senior year
in high school, almost the first thing she sees is a beautiful
dapple-gray horse. An accomplished show jumper at home in Canada, she
is distressed to learn that Tempesta (whom she calls Storm) is about to
be put down for his unpredictable behavior. Drawing on her previous
experience, she diagnoses his easily fixed problem, convinces his
owners to enter him in the Palio—Siena’s famous horse race—and,
fortuitously, is pulled in at the last minute to ride him. Angela faces
other issues that summer as well: avoiding being swept away by the
attentions of a handsome jockey and convincing her new friend Catarina,
badly injured by the same horse, to ride again. Even readers who aren’t
horse lovers will enjoy Chandler’s descriptions of the traditions,
time-honored rivalries, and elaborate preparations surrounding the
event, and the race itself is appropriately
exciting. This first novel is an old-fashioned but satisfying read, especially for teenage girls still looking for horse stories. Grades 7-10. --by Kathleen Isaacs, Booklist
In Ann Chandler's first novel for young adults, we are introduced to 17-year old Angela-a spirited show jumper who ventures to Siena, Italy to visit her Aunt and Uncle for the summer. Angela's Uncle Giorgio races horses in the Palio, an annual track race that draws a large crowd from across all of Italy,
and when Angela is asked to give the horses a daily training ride, she
quickly forms a bond with Storm, a horse that is notoriously unsettled,
unpredictable and "crazy." Determined to calm Storm's tempestuous
nature, Angela takes him out for a leisurely rider by the river, only
to be thrown clear out of her saddle and down the river's banks into
the water. When Angela's Uncle Giorgio hears of the accident, he
resolves to take the horse to the slaughterhouse the very next day;
however, Angela and her new friend Catarina are able to deduce that
Storm is actually partially blind in his right eye, causing him to
spook any time something appears without
warning, from his right
side. Dawning a newly fitted patch. Storm is able to stay at the ranch,
and moreover, he is able to prove to his owners that he is worthy of
racing in the Palio - with Angela as his jockey!
Chandler's
writing is beautifully crafted, eliciting a wonderful sense of
exhilaration and excitement from beginning to end.
The plot is somewhat
predictable, but for the avid "animal story" reader, of which there are many, this novel will certainly satisfy.
--Resource Links, 2009
Grateful to leave her mother and the alternating
“stony silences and yelling matches” that have erupted since the death
of her father, Angela goes to Italy expecting an uneventful summer with
her uncle in Tuscany.
As described in Ann Chandler’s fictional debut Siena Summer, Angela
arrives in Siena in time to witness the time-honoured Palio, a highly
competitive and often bloody, bareback horse race, staged twice each
summer, during which ten riders recklessly circle the Piazza del Campo.
Angela’s life becomes complicated when she discovers a dappled horse
named Tempesta, awaiting a final journey to the slaughterhouse, and she
meets the girl this unpredictable horse threw and trampled. Trouble
comes in the form of a broad-shouldered, dark-eyed and devious fantino,
or jockey, named Tony.
The Palio evolved from medieval times. Animal rights organizations have
frequently protested the mistreatment of horses at the event.
-- BC Bookworld
Siena Summer by Ann CHANDLER rated Good
In Ann Chandler’s first novel for young adults, we are introduced to the 17-year old Angela-a spirited show jumper who ventures to Siena, Italy to visit her Aunt and Uncle for the summer. Angela’s Uncle Giorgio races horses in the Palio, an annual track race that draws a large crowd from across all of Italy, and when Anglea is asked to give the horses a daily training ride, she quickly forms a bond with Storm, a horse that is notoriously unsettled, unpredictable and “crazy”. Determined to calm Storm’s tempestuous nature. Angela takes him out for a leisurely ride by the river, only to be thrown clear out of her saddle and down the river’s banks into the water. When Angela’s Uncle Giorgio hears of the accident he resolves to take the horse to the slaughterhouse the very next day; however, Angela and her new friend Catarina are able to deduce that Storm is actually partially blind in his right eye, causing him to spook any time something
appears without warning, from his right side. Dawning a newly fitted patch, Storm is able to stay at the ranch, and moreover, he is able to prove to his owners that is worthy of racing in the Palio-Angela as his Jockey!
Chandler’s writing is beautifully crafted, eliciting a wonderful sense of exhilaration and excitement from beginning to end. The plot is somewhat predictable, but for the avid “animal story” reader, of which there are many, this novel will certainly satisfy. -- Resource Links, February 2009
Thematic Links: Italy; Horses; Adventure
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