No End in Sight: My Life as a Blind Iditarod Racer

Twenty-year-old Scdoris, afflicted with a rare eye disorder that makes her 20-200 vision impervious to correction, recounts her journey to Alaska's famous sled dog race in this slow but straightforward memoir written with family friend Steber. Born with congenital achromatopsia, Scdoris spent her childhood struggling to gain independence, even though crossing a busy street was a life-or-death challenge. During her childhood in Oregon, Scdoris's father introduced her to his love of sled dog racing, a livelihood he temporarily abandoned in order to move closer to urban areas where state programs for the blind were readily available. Scdoris expends equal amounts of time on the details of racing and the trials of being a blind teenager in a school where she endured merciless teasing on a daily basis. While negotiating those difficulties, she also had to stand up to resentment and disbelief in the racing community (many seasoned racers believed a young girl with a disability had no place in the sport). Yet Scdoris pursued her love of racing and ends the memoir intending to race the Iditarod in 2006. Her inspiring life story is unfortunately dulled by a lackluster presentation. 22 b&w photos not seen by PW . (Mar.)