Lovely review of Scratched…

Thanks to Lisa Stewart, expert horsewoman and author of The Big Quiet, a memoir of her long-distance journey through her memories, Kansas, and Missouri with her horse Chief. With her horse knowledge and great gifts as a writer, I am honored to have earned her good opinion of my story of a teenaged boy finding his way across the backstretch of a thoroughbred racetrack.

Scratched, a young adult novel, struck me through with a new awareness, followed by angst and sadness, as I learned about the lives of undocumented workers at horse racing tracks across America, and likely around the world. As only a perfectly structured and beautifully paced novel can convey, Scratched washes the reader onward with succinct prose borne by sharp, accurate images, telling the story of 15-year-old Luis. When not at school, Luis cares for his pre-school sister while his mother works tending racehorses. The threat of being reported to immigration authorities looms. His divorced mother’s need for male companionship and financial help in the form of a security officer places them all in danger of separation. Luis goes to school, cares for his little sister, and secretly earns extra money from an ostracized, elderly female trainer within the shadows of long rows of horse barns. Luis learns heartbreaking lessons about his absent father, the price of using of animals for gambling, and the practicality of working within a centuries-old system to make the best of it for the creatures. Stielstra’s own family history in the racing horse business grounds the story in fact and compassion. If you know anything about children, horses, or family dynamics after divorce, this book will touch you deeply while revealing a critically important perspective on those among us who are striving to survive.