This third installment of my “Favorite Books from Childhood” bookshelf, below, won’t resemble yours. It confirms I was certifiably horse-crazy. (Thanks to my daughter Liz for the new Black Stallion books at Christmas!) At 16 I finally had my temporary fill, at a tiny camp (17 girls, 12 horses) run by a retired British Cavalry captain. By the end of the summer some of us, including yours truly, were jumping a three-foot fence with no reins or stirrups. (PM me if you’re curious how that worked.) Horrible form, but I stayed on. Those were the days, because when I finally got a horse of my own it was a disaster. The story is detailed on my website (spoiler alert) as the little minx, I mean mare, was awarded her own subplot in my unpublished YA novel, whose name I can’t mention here as it’s entered in a contest with blind judging. Meanwhile, The Black Stallion Mystery made me cry again recently, I can’t find even a mention of All for a Horse, and someone wants $655 for a copy of Pamela and the Blue Mare on eBay. Um, how was that priced?
What did you love reading at this age? Or were you busy living instead of daydreaming?
Upper Elementary (4-6), ten favorites
A Little Princess, by Frances Hodgson Burnett
Old Yeller, by Fred Gipson
Island of the Blue Dolphins, by Scott O’Dell
The Hidden Staircase and all Nancy Drew, by Carolyn Keene (series)
The Black Stallion, by Walter Farley (series)
Horse Stories, ed. By David Thomas
Pamela and the Blue Mare, by Alice O’Connell
All for a Horse
Karen, by Maria Killilea (and sequel)
Ten Little Indians, by Agatha Christie