Children 39;s Car Racing Games Free Download
Abigayle Laurenitis
In this edition of Kids' Maximum Shelf--the monthly ShelfAwareness feature that focuses on an upcoming title that we love and believewill be a great handselling opportunity for booksellers everywhere--we present Racing in the Rain: My Life as a Dog byGarth Stein, which goes on sale on May 3, 2011. The review and interviews areby Jennifer M. Brown. Harper, an imprint of HarperCollins Children's Books, hashelped support the issue.
Why do a young reader's edition of the popular adult title The Art of Racing in the Rain (2008)?Because every child has some of Enzo, acharming lab-terrier mix, in him (or her). With a few adjustments (a slightsimplification of vocabulary and syntax, and a reworking of some adult themes),Garth Stein has provided a version of his book that you may hand to any child.Enzo, the wise and observant canine narrator, has advantages and disadvantages.One of the chief advantages is access. People--adults--say things in front ofhim they wouldn't say in front of others. So Enzo is privy to conversations andinformation that Denny, his owner, is not. He has nearly full access to thehuman world, yet, as a canine, he also possesses highly attuned senses. He cansmell where Denny has been all day and what he has eaten. He feels the mist ofthe Seattle skies and the squish of mud beneath his paws, and he can read bodylanguage and facial expressions like a secret code. He is fully in the moment--asare children.
He lovesDenny and comes to love the mate he chooses, Eve, and he loves the child theyhave together, Zo. He cannot tell them because he cannot speak. He can showthem, however, by staying at their sides and guiding them without words (andwithout thumbs, as he likes to point out). One day, Enzo smells something onEve that is not right. He knows that something is very wrong, long before thedoctors discover it. Stein does not shield children from pain and loss.Instead, he shows them that they, like Enzo, have the strength within them tomake it through even the greatest challenges. And he often does it with humor.
Zo has a great deal in common with Enzo. People say thingsto her--her maternal grandparents, for instance (Enzo "began calling themthe Twins because they looked very much alike. They had the same shade of dyedhair. Plus they always wore matching outfits. And... they both smelled of chemicals:plastics and hair products."), thatthey would not say in front of most adults. Zo is highly perceptive andsuspects the Twins are up to something, yet she is powerless to make her owndestiny. She must rely on the adults around her--just like Enzo.
When Denny, a racecar driver, leaves the house, he leaves onthe TV for Enzo. One day, Enzo watches a film about Mongolia. When a dog diesin Mongolia, his master whispers into the dog's ear his wish that the dogreturn as a man. "Not all dogs return as men," Enzo explains, "onlythose who are ready." He learns everything he can to get ready to be aman. Enzo is preparing.
When Eve becomes ill, Enzo, Denny and Zo must cope with herabsence while she's in the hospital. After her release, the Twins suggest thatthey care for Eve in their home so that Denny can continue working. They alsosuggest that Zo stay with her mother. The Twins have a plan: they aregradually taking hold of Eve and Zo. Enzo and Denny's pack is scattered, theirlives are pulled in every direction. This new arrangement stretches them thin--andgoes on for much longer than they'd imagined.
Denny's training and success depend upon being in themoment, and forgetting any mistake that could consume his thoughts and causehim to miss an opportunity--or to crash. He must wait for each chance to gainposition, slowly moving up to win the race. Enzo, on the other hand, seeksimmediate gratification. He wants his pack together. Now. On Enzo's quest toprepare to be a man, he tries to learn from Denny, to persevere, to be patient,to seize the moments when they present themselves. And Enzo is improving allthe time.
At first, Enzo resents Eve. But he allows a bond to developbetween them. It's different from his with Denny, but it is a bond nonetheless.When Eve gives birth to Zo, he confides, "I wished, at the time, that thebaby would look like me." Zo is instantly part of his pack, and he is herprotector. When Eve has her first crippling bout with her illness, Denny isaway racing. Eve takes Zo and goes to stay with the Twins. In her haste andher pain, she forgets about Enzo. For three days, he is alone. He finds thetoilet bowl as a water source; he makes his food last. He even confines his "business"to one mat by the door. But then Zo's stuffed zebra destroys all of thechild's other stuffed toys, framing Enzo for the mess. In his head, Enzo deniesthe destruction, just as children vehemently deny wrong actions they'vecommitted. Something (the zebra) overtakes their thoughts and they do thingsthey can't imagine themselves doing. It wasn't Enzo, it was the zebra.
The zebra becomes a recurring theme in the book, and abarometer for Enzo's growth. When Enzo learns the Twins' plan to keep Zo withthem, he goes head-to-head with the zebra, and he comes to a realization. "Thezebra is something inside of us. Our fears. Our own self-destructive nature,"he says. "The zebra is the worst part of us when we are face-to-face withour worst times." This epiphany allows Enzo to take responsibility forhimself, and also to keep Denny on track to remain true to himself, too.
We know from the beginning that Enzo is letting go. This isa book about letting go, about keeping those you love with you and honoringthem even when they cannot physically be with you. It's also about finding away to access your best self in the worst of circumstances. It's a valuable lesson,at any age. And Enzo is a great teacher.--Jennifer Brown
I used to make documentary films, and a friend asked me tolook at a film called State of Dogs.It was about this belief in Mongolia that the next life for dogs would be as aperson. I kept thinking, "I wish I could do something with that, but howdo you do that?" It wasn't until I saw the poet Billy Collins who read hispoem from the point of view of a dog that's been euthanized that I thought, "That'sit! That story can only be told from the dog's point of view."
I raced for about four years as an amateur in a Miata andhad a great time doing it. I'm too competitive to be a middle-of-the-pack guy.If you want to be good at racing, you have to put in all your time, energy andeffort, and I wasn't willing to do that. The zebra got in the car with me. If I'dbeen able to say, "Look in the mirror: Is this where you want to be?"I might have stopped. We get wrapped up in our passions, and sometimes the onlyway to get out of it is to crash.
I have three kids, 14, 12 and four. When the book came outin 2008, my 14-year-old was 11. The book was at Starbucks and stuff, and peopleat school were talking about it. My son wanted to read it. I said, "Okay,but there are some mature subjects in there. Let's keep tabs on it, and we'llwork through it together." That was great, and I thought, okay, an11-year-old can read this along with a parent who's willing to work through itwith them. I realized that not all kids have a parent who's willing to do that.There was bad language in the book, and the way I'd constructed the plot wastoo mature for kids. I talked to my editor at Harper, and she said, "Italked with the people at Harper Children's and they would love to work withyou on an adaptation that would do what you'd want it to do." Young peopleidentify with Enzo because they feel his frustration in essential ways. [They]are essentially dogs, metaphorically speaking, in that they have fullyfunctioning, very intelligent brains--more intelligent than a lot of adults who'veforgotten too much. They have to ask for stuff, for clothes, to go places. Thetweens can get a charge out of Enzo, and take some of the same messages intoaccount: self-responsibility, self-reliance. The morals he puts out wouldresonate with tween readers.
Enzo's relationshipwith Zo's zebra is fascinating as a measurement of his maturity and change inperspective. Youngest readers might even believe the zebra is possessed in that first episode. How did the zebra develop as asubtheme?
The true story behind that is this: I didn't know about thezebra before I started writing the book. Sometimes I'll give myself a writingassignment in the middle of a book because I need to know more about thecharacters. It might not stay in the book, but it helps me explore. One day Iwent into my office and thought, "I want to see what makes Enzo tick. I'mgoing to lock him into the house for three days." Right away he finds thetoilet bowl so he won't go thirsty. He knows the food is right behind thatdoor, but he can't open the door. If you leave a dog with complete freedom forseveral days, something will get destroyed. I don't think the dog wants to, Ithink it happens--he would never do anything to hurt Zo or her stuffedanimals. The zebra destroys itself, too, and leaves him framed for the job. Iread the scene over, and thought, "That's going to work!" I wentthrough the outline and thought, "Where else can I use the zebra?"Including the climactic scene [where Denny's about to sign some crucial legalpapers]. We all have a zebra. It's the part where we don't want to takeresponsibility for our own actions--a force beyond our control. Enzo's lessonis: We are the zebra, and we have to acknowledge that, and when we do, werender the zebra powerless.
The red pepper scene(in which Enzo intentionally causes his own stomach upset) and Enzo's notion of"King Karma" are so great in terms of Enzo being able to exactrevenge on the Twins in his own way.
It's interesting because that [red pepper] scene is tied inwith the zebra. Right after that scene, he goes in and growls at the zebra [inZo's bedroom]. In a sense, that's a big transition moment. He's using thetools he has available, and he's going to express his dissatisfaction. He'sstanding up for himself and taking charge of his zebra. Crapping on the rug iskind of a key moment for him.
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