At one time, horse stories were a staple in literature for young people. Such stories often highlighted the best and worse in humankind (Anna Sewell’s Black Beauty); the bond between humans and their animals (Walter Farley’s The Black Stallion); and class differences in the microcosm of the horsy set (Enid Bagnold’s National Velvet). Over time, such stories faded, but a new crop of outstanding ones, sired by these classics, has created a literary equine renaissance. Listed below are several contemporary horse stories for the picture book set, beginning and middle grade readers, and young adults.
What's Coming for Christmas?
What’s Coming for Christmas? (by Kate Banks and illustrated by Georg Hallenseben) brings very young children the glorious birth of a foal on Christmas Eve into the wonder of the holiday season. Members of a farm family, and the animals outside, know, “Something is coming.” They build the suspense for young listeners, and though the family gets ready for Christmas, that morning is reserved for the joy of birth rather than commercial presents.
In the tradition of equine biographies, such as Marguerite Henry’s Man ‘O War (but for much younger readers), Meghan McCarthy introduces the picture book crowd to Seabiscuit, the Wonder Horse. Set in the midst of the Great Depression, this against-all-odds story tells of Seabiscuit, who “loved to eat and sleep but hated to run.” A detailed author’s note expands on the real life personalities who brought Seabiscuit to national attention. With much more consideration for setting, the culture of racing, and individuals, Seabiscuit: An American Legend by Laura Hillenbrand gives young adults their own peek into “the Biscuit,” telling in great detail about the stubby little bay that doesn’t look like a racehorse, but whose owner, trainer, and jockey all come together to produce a champion.
Chancy of the Maury River provides a fictional (and, as is familiar in this genre that began with Black Beauty, sentimental) autobiography of a horse. Middle grade readers meet Chancy, an albino Appaloosa that encounters many owners before finding the best fit horse and rider could ever hope for, a young disturbed girl named Claire who purchases the nearly blind gelding. Despite their obvious bond, Claire soon outgrows Chancy and needs a younger, better jumper to reach her own potential. Claire, however, never abandons her care and love for Chancy, but broadens the horse’s outlook by introducing it to Trevor, a terminally ill young boy who spends his last days in the hands of this gentle and all-knowing animal.
Blind Beauty
Themes of horses proving to be the best medicine for someone continue in novels for young adults. In Blind Beauty by K. M. Peyton, Tessa is kicked out of yet another boarding school and works at a stable near her home where she meets the blind horse Buffoon and restores him to his championship lineage. Sean is sentenced to community service with Mr. Hassler in Hero by S. L. Rottman and discovers his self-confidence grows after he’s given the responsibility of a new-born foal.
Young girls who dream of owning ponies discover in Jessie Haas’s Runaway Raddish that the reverse is true: ponies own their “masters.” This beginning chapter book relates the trials of Raddish, a teaching pony who keeps losing her owners as they gradually outgrow her, only to find a permanent place in a riding school, teaching young girls how the fundamentals of owning and riding a pony. Radish’s adventures continue in a well-crafted sequel, Jigsaw Pony.
Ownership also takes first place in Kate Thompson’s historical fiction, Highway Robbery, aimed at slightly more sophisticated chapter book readers. Here, the horse is a prop as a dark stranger asks a young street urchin to watch his horse. The setting (18th century England) is as bleak as the rainy weather, and a group of soldiers question the youngster about what he’s doing. Is this horse Black Bess? Is its owner the nefarious Dick Turpin? The young beggar tells his story of this magnificent horse, although the stallion’s true identity remains a riddle even after readers finish the last page.
Wild Girl
Readers in grades five through eight find their horse stories a little more complicated. Woven into the care and training of Wild Girl (by Patricia Reilly Giff) is the story of Lidie and her family and their adaptation to the United States from their beloved Brazil. When Lidie’s mother dies, her father and older brother leave their native country hoping to make a home and a life for her. Years later, Lidie joins them on a horse ranch in New York where her father has become a respected trainer, but nonetheless clueless that his daughter has grown up and can not only care for horses but ride them skillfully as well. Lidie’s immigrant struggles as well as her attempts to find her place in her family and race her beloved filly, Wild Girl, represent multiple entry points for potential readers.
Abby, the heroine of Jane Smiley’s The Georges and the Jewels, has two major complications in her life. First, she’s left out of the seventh grade clique (The Big Four), and, second, she’s often at odds with her fundamentalist father and his hard-nosed attitudes. Like Lidie’s father (above), Abby’s dad is a fine trainer; he buys horses, trains them, and then sells them for a profit. All the mares on his ranch are called Jewel, while the stallions are named George. Abby loves to ride them, to show them off in their best light when her father is ready to sell them to young girls. But, she meets her match with one George, a horse she identifies as Ornery George, who needs not the brutal hand of her uncle, nor the strict one of her father, but instead a gentle touch so that it can be a horse that a little girl can ride.
At one time, horses were the only means of transportation and often the army with the best horses would win the war. As early as 344 BC, Alexander the Great conquered lands from Greece to India astride a horse called Bucephalas who describes their adventures in I am the Great Horse by Katherine Roberts. Later in Britain, young Galwyn puts his special skills to use and becomes the farrier who shoes the horses of King Arthur in Black Horses for the King by Anne McCaffrey. During the time of the Crusades both pilgrims and crusaders were often on horseback. In K.M. Grant’s Blood Red Horse, William de Granville selects a small red stallion for his warhorse for the Third Crusade little realizing that his horse called Hosanna will prove a powerful ally. By World War I, the number of horses used in battle is greatly diminished, though the farm horse Joey describes the wagons and ambulances he pulls for the armies of both Britain and Germany in War Horse by Michael Morpurgo.
Bug Boy
Though horses are no longer the primary means of transport, they are still ridden and, for many of us, seen only during events, such as horse racing. A fictional look at horse racing comes from Young Adult favorite and master of this genre, Dick Francis, whose early career as a jockey adds reality to his mysteries. In Under Orders, former champion jockey Sid Halley, who retired after his left hand was mangled, not only tries to find the murderer of the winning jockey at the Cheltenham Gold Cup race but also whether or not specific races have been fixed. Slightly younger teenagers get a behind the scenes glimpse of the dark underbelly of horse racing when they meet Jack Walsh who has left home during the Great Depression to make his way racing horses. The title of his story, Bug Boy (by Eric Luper), refers to an apprentice jockey, and as such, Jack begins to discover that betting; race-fixing; and some subtle, as well as overt, bribery are evils hard to avoid in his new-found career.
Many teens still hope for careers, or at least long associations, with horses. Jane Ryan loves working with horses, but, unlike most of the girls at the well-respected farm, Sunny Acres, Jane doesn’t have the money to have one of her own. She is such a good rider, however, that she is given the responsibility of training Lancelot, a hard to handle horse with lots of potential. With a touch of romance and a setting as well realized as any stable, Jane’s story has proven quite popular with junior high readers. Older teens will identify more with Alex in Another Kind of Cowboy by Susan Juby. Alex dreams of becoming a rider of dressage, but not atop the Western horse Turnip, which his father won in a poker game. Ben, too, has dreams, though he wants to make it to the Olympics astride his stallion Galaxy, but fears his reality is becoming an auto mechanic in Under a Different Sky by Deborah Savage. Even back in the late 1800s there were hopes wrapped around horses. For Rachel, it’s to become a veterinarian but it takes nursing a badly burned fire horse back to health before she convinces her parents she’s really serious about vet school in Firehorse by Diane L. Wilson.
These books should get young readers out of the starting gate as they find that an interest in horses can be duplicated with an interest in books, what we consider a double crown winner.
- Betty Carter is a former New Orleans, Louisiana reading teacher; Houston, Texas school librarian; and Texas Woman’s University professor of children’s and young adult literature. She’s been a member of the Newbery Committee, which annually selects the most distinguished book in children’s literature and the Sibert Committee which annually selects the most outstanding informational book in children’s literature. She’s also been a juror and chair of the Boston Globe-Horn Book Award and is a past coordinator of the Texas Bluebonnet Committee which oversees the selection and use of an annual reading list of books read by over two-hundred thousand school children in Texas. She presently works as a reviewer for The Horn Book Magazine.
- A member of YALSA [Young Adult Library Services Association] for more than 25 years, Pam Spencer Holley is a Past President, chaired the 1987 Best Books for Young Adults, the 2004 Printz Committee and the 2009 Odyssey Committee. She authored the series What Do Children and Young Adults Read Next?, vol. 1-6 [The Gale Group, 1994-2004], and continues to write for their online product Books and Authors. She is a former biology teacher, middle and high school librarian, and coordinator of libraries for Fairfax County Public Schools, from which she retired in 1998.
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