A Horse Named Peaceable

Lothrop, Lee & Shepard, New York, 1982, 157 pp.

Jessamy has run away, and she teams up with another runaway to try and find her grey horse Peaceable.
The livery stables where he was boarded has sold him after a fire and an unpaid livery bill.

A review on Pony Book Chronicles

The Easter Donkey
Golden Books, New York, 1989, illus Judith Cheng, 41 pp.

Seth has a donkey, Barak.  Sophia tells them to go and get palm branches, but Barak who is lame as well as being
young and stubborn, carries on eating hay.

Isabelle Holland

Isabelle Holland (1920-2002) wrote widely for both children and adults. She was born in Basel, Switzerland.  Her father was a US Foreign Service Officer, but Isabelle did not live in America until 1942. She was educated in England, where at the age of 13, she won a story competition in the magazine Tiger Tim.  After school, she studied at Liverpool University until 1942, when World War II forced her to move to Tulane, where she finished her degree.  After 2 years working for the US War Department, she worked in the publishing industry for 25 years, during which time she also wrote.  Her first published novel was Cecily (1967); a novel for adults, but she is probably best known for her work for teenagers.

Isabelle Holland wrote her books from a definite moral standpoint:  her teenage heroes and heroines’ problems were seen as the result of parental expectations and permissive schooling.  She herself said:

““The lucky children are the ones who are taught to believe, as they go through life, that, whatever their faults may be, they themselves are lovable and estimable human beings. Most parents to not mean to convey a different message, but they often do. And if my books are about the wounds given in that message, they are also about the healing that can take place, given the right adult at the right time.”

Her books won awards or were shortlisted:  Of Love and Death and Other Journeys was a finalist for the National Book Award in 1976. Two other books, Abbie's God Book (1982) and God, Mrs. Muskrat and Aunt Dot (1983) won the Helen Keating Ott Award, for “outstanding contributions to children's literature that promotes high moral and ethical values.”

Finding the books:  all the books are easy to find in the USA.  Perdita was published by Severn House in the UK, where it can be tricky to source.

Sources and links:

Terri A. Wear:  Horse Stories, an Annotated Bibilography, Scarecrow Press, 1987

National Library of Congress

Isabelle Holland’s papers in the de Grummond collection

Isabelle Holland on her books

The Rev Claire Aldington series

Obituary, New York Times, March 9, 2002

Bibliography - horse books only

Perdita

Little Brown, Boston, 1983, 240 pp.

Fawcett, New York, 1984, pb

Severn House, London, 1987, 240 pp.

Magna, Yorkshire, England, 1989, Large Print edition.

The 17 year old heroine of the book has amnesia.  She gets a job at a stables, and discovers she can ride.
All is not well though, and she is afraid of something she cannot put her finger on.

Toby the Splendid

Walker, New York, 1987, 147 pp.

Janet has gone against her mother’s wishes: she has saved up all the money she earned from babysitting, and
has bought a horse with it.  Although she works to earn her horse’s keep, that is as much as she can manage.
She can’t afford riding lessons too.