Mary Ellen Lang-Collura

Winners

Western Producer Prairie Books 1984, cover art by Oni (left)

UK:  as Jordy, Spindlewood, 120 pp, 1988 (right)

UK:  as Winners, Canongate Kelpie, Edinburgh, 179 pp, 1990

‘“ Eleven foster homes in eight years, and moving again. It was enough to make him sick.”  And
now fifteen-year-old Jordy Threebears is returning to the Ash Creek Reserve to live with a
grandfather he hardly knows. For Jordy, the years of resentment and anger prove difficult to
overcome, until he receives the gift of a wild mare. With his horse  Siksika, Jordy gains a
companion as well as the determination to beat the odds. But Fred Brady’s unexplainable
hatred of Jordy threatens the boy’s chance for happiness. “

*Note: Winners was published as Winners and as Jordy in the UK, and as Siksika in Germany

Sunny

Irwin Publishing 1988 (trade size pb), cover art by Elaine Macpherson

General Paperbacks 1991 (mass market size paperback)

“Sunny - set in the Flats of Vancouver, the powerful story of a magnificent racehorse, Sunny.  
Injured in a race, Sunny is brought back to healthy - and to success as a jumper - by high
school student Sophie, her brother, Mike, and their older friend, Olga, a survivor of the Nazi
Holocaust. Sunny’s owner, impressed with the horse’s jump record, puts him under professional
training. Will Sunny continue to win without Sophie and Mike to encourage him?”

Mary Ellen Lang Collura (1949- ) is a Canadian author.  Her first young adult novel, Winners, was short listed for the Canada Council Award.   Mary Ellen Lang Collura grew up in Vancouver, and has worked as a teacher.  When she was writing Sunny, she was living in British Columbia.  She has written another book, Dreams, but I am not sure whether or not this was a horse book.  

Many thanks to Susan Bourgeau for all her help with this section.

Finding the books:   Winners was published in the UK (in hardback as Jordy, and in paperback as Winners) and is easy to find here.  Sunny is more easily obtainable in the USA:  both titles are very easy to find there.

Bibliography - horse books only