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Reflection

After I finished this reading project, I feel so happy because I find out that reading novel is fun. But I only like to read novel in free time. I like the "National Velvet" that I've read. It's very fun, suit with my taste. But the novel is not very famous because it's too old already. This reading project helps me to understand more about this novel because I have to summarize the main idea of each chapter. The novel is long but there are not many main ideas in it because mostly the story tells more about the life of the main characters more than their goals and dreams. My father forces me to read a lot of books but I hate reading. After I did this reading  project, I finds out that reading is fun and I will start reading a lot of books to please my father. I will not forget this story, it's the first novel I've ever read. National Velvet not only inspire me how good books are but it makes me feel better after a long day of school. I can go home and spend my time to read this book rather than play game.

Goals, Dreams and Motives

As I summarized the story, Velvet's dream is to win the Grand National Race with the Piebald. She always pray every night to win the race. Her dream seems impossible to success because her family is poor to provide horse for her and they will not enough money to enter the race. She and Mi has to save their own money, they also borrow Mrs. Brown's money. She also wants to have a lot of horses to ride on. I think she has to find it by herself because buying horses is not cheap for poor people. But her biggest dream is to win the race and it takes her a lot of effort to success her dream because it takes time to train her horse to be professional, the Piebald can jump five foot and Sir Pericles is the fastest.

Her goals are win as much shillings as possible to save in her bank account and make the Piebald famous. She may lost the qualify rounds but she has performed very impressive. She takes care of her horses very neatly, especially the Piebald and Sir Pericles. She uses her money wisely and saves it for the Race. Mi helps her to take care of the horses and train them to be professional. Mi is clever so he knows how to enter the race easily. He borrows Mrs. Brown money and promises that he will return after he wins the race.  She practices the Piebald to jump higher in the race and make it famous after she win the prize.

Her biggest motive is from her family poorness. She wants to win this race to get a lot of shillings to help her family has a better life. She also loves horses and she wants to ride on them one day. Her second motive for her to join the Grand National Race this year is she sees the Piebald is lovely and it jumps very high, higher than the other horses she has. She wants it to be famous and known by many countries. 

Time Line

Last summary

The race is starting, it's a foggy day. There's a struggle going on at Becher's; a horse has fallen and was being got out with ropes. Mi's legs turn to water. He runs to the front to see what is happening. The horse that has fallen is a black horse. There is a shout and another horse falls down with a rider riding on it. Two more horses come back out of the mist, one riderless. Nineteen horses has streamed down to the Canal Turn, and suddenly, at the boundary, four horses appear beyond Valentine's, and among them, fourth is the Piebald without Velvet. 

Mi is looking for Velvet everywhere but he cannot find her. The Associated Press in New York men sends a message to every place in Liverpool that the Piebald wins the race and Mi is taking care of him at Aintree. Velvet is now at Liverpool Central Hospital, they found her unconscious. When she wakes up, doctors ask her some questions, but she refuses to reveal her identity. She just tell them that she falls down the horse while riding and unconscious.

Soon, the news spread everywhere that a girl has won the Grand National but no one knows her name except Mi, the nurse is taking care of her. The resident M.O comes to the hospital to see Velvet. He asks questions about her and the Piebald. But she doesn't want tell her name to him and doctors but they can guess that she is about fourteen to sixteen years old. At home, Mr and Mrs Brown recognizes their daughter on the TV. The reporters tell them that she is the Liverpool Central Hospital, they also said that she slipped off her horse and fainted. They immediately get to Liverpool and take her home, Mi is at home waiting for her. The Piebald has been disqualified but they'll dare to drop them him out altogether. 

The next morning, the Browns wake up as usual, they find out that there's a crowd of people, including the reporters waiting to see Velvet. But the Browns don't want to meet them. Some people even send gifts to her. Some guys wants to be her boyfriend and propose her, she's now popular at school. Tomorrow Velvet and Mi are going to meet the National Hunt Committee. In an upper room in 15 Cavendish Square, round a board table, the board has assembled. They are summarized what happened at the Grand National. Then they call Velvet upstairs, they ask her a few questions about herself, the Piebald and family. One of them know Mrs. Brown as a swimmer of the Channel. She said that Mi helped her everything. She also said that she didn't want to join the Grand National, it was just for fun because she saw Piebald jump lovely so she decided to make him famous and this is Mi idea. They ask her to call Mi. They ask him some questions but finally he refuses to take the prize money and the cup because he likes to stay poor and help the Brown. From now on, people from every where in Europe and America call her National Velvet.

Events in the story

Velvet won the raffle ticket for a piebald horse

The old man gave her five horses before he dies because she told her that she wants to be a famous horse rider

Velvet won the Grand National Race

Summary 3

At the end, Velvet doesn't win that jumping game because she cares about piebald's health. Then they leaves the Ring and rest for the next competition. Then, the Voice announces for Event Number Five. Her rivals are two livery-stable men from Worthing, a grizzled woman with short hair and a hanging underlip, and a young man in checks on a hired horse with poverty checks. Everyone likes Sir Pericles horse. Velvet eliminates all the competitors left the little boy and a fat little man with a big horse's stable and comes Flora Bank  rode on a bay horse like a racer, lean and powerful and fully sixteen hands. But Velvet manages to beat them all and wins thirty shillings. At these chapters, they often mention the word "Weatherby", it's a gateway to a great park.

After she had given Mi the forty shillings, she had put three pounds in the Post Office Savings Bank. But Mr. Brown, Please with the performance at the gymkhana, had given her five shillings. She had wanted to bank this too but there is outcry among the sisters. One day, Velvet meets Mr. Ede. He saw piebald's performance at the competition. Velvet writes a letter to a the Weatherby (I think because the story didn't tell who she sent the letter to) to ask him about the Rules of entering for the Grand National Race. September passed and October came. Velvet by now had grown bolder. She no longer rose in dawn to fetch the piebald to the mushroom valley but take him in the red-haired autumn under cold afternoon moons of October  on dew-drenched grass. He can now jump five foot high.

 Now   Mi and Velvet are deciding to change a new name for piebald so when she wins the Grand National Race they will record his name for history. But in the end, they just call him The Piebald because they can't think a better name to call him. A reply from the Weatherby said that they needed a hundreds pound and money for a horsebox to enter the Grand National Race but they don't have enough money. So they asked for Mrs. Brown's saving money and she accepts but they won't tell Mr. Brown because he may disagree.

 On the first Monday in January Mi takes the whole entry money of a hundred pounds in gold sovereigns in a bag up to London. He goes to Mssrs. Weatherby in Cavendish Square. At first, they need only ten pounds but then they decide to take his one hundreds pounds and give him changes back, ask him some questions about the horse and the competitor, it takes a lot of time and Mi is getting impatient and inconvenience. Finally, they give him a receipt. Day after day, The Piebald becomes stronger and stronger. The National Grand Race is in Liverpool. Velvet and Mi save money and go there by taxi.