TERRI SCHLICHENMEYER The Bookworm Sez Advertisement

When your favorite athlete bangs his thumb, twists his leg, or bumps his shoulder and sits out the next game, it makes you a little worried. Is it career-threatening or is it just a minor thing in the Major Leagues?

Bangs, twists and bumps can be ignored, and your athlete might play as if nothing happened. But when he needs four legs to win, that's a whole 'nother matter. In "Barbaro: A Nation's Love Story," by Tom Philbin and Pamela K. Brodowsky, you'll read about an athlete who fought to survive despite the odds and the people who did all they could to help him.

When the small bay foal slipped into the world almost four years ago in a barn in Kentucky, his owners hoped that this horse might be a champion. His bloodlines, like that of many Thoroughbreds, were carefully plotted. His birth was monitored and assisted. After he was able to be with other horses, he was closely watched. His cautious owners wanted what all Thoroughbred owners want: a Triple Crown winner. They could only dream of what this colt would become.

When the horse was a little over a year old, he was moved from the farm of his birth to a horse farm in Florida for some basic race-horse training. At some point, his name was changed from "La Ville" to "Barbaro," after a fox hound in a painting that his owners loved. Horse trainer and former Olympic contestant Michael Matz was chosen to train the horse in which others had seen such promise.

After winning the Kentucky Derby in early May last year, race fans harbored hopes of Barbaro as the next Triple Crown winner. Sadly, it was not to be. When live broadcasts of the Preakness showed Barbaro's injury, equine medical expert Dr. Dean Richardson was almost immediately tapped as the man to save the champion horse. Richardson used high-tech surgery to repair a broken bone that would have meant euthanasia for a lesser animal. Yet despite the medical team's best efforts, the prayers of thousands of fans around the world and months-long recuperation, Barbaro was ultimately unable to overcome his injury.

"Barbaro: A Nation's Love Story" is a skinny book, and for good reason. Barbaro only competed in six major races before his injury took him out of the running, literally. Because of lack of track record, authors Tom Philbin and Pamela Brodowsky fill this book with fascinating comparisons to the lives of other Thoroughbreds, such as Native Dancer, Secretariat, Funny Cide and others that made Triple Crown history. That's the part that horsey people and racing fans will enjoy. Not so interesting are the chapters on day-to-day care for Barbaro (how many times can you say that a cast has been changed?) and the dozen or so pages of get-well wishes and emails.

Still, if your heart broke when jockey Edgar Prado tried to comfort his mount, you're going to want to own this book. "Barbaro: A Nation's Love Story" is one you can't, and shouldn't, miss.

"Barbaro: A Nation's Love Story," by Tom Philbin and Pamela K. Brodowsky, Collins, $19.95, 187 pages, includes glossary.