Miriam Burt Young

Prance, a Carousel Horse
Thomas Y Crowell, New York, 1950, illus Amy Jones, 116 pp.

A story about the life of a carousel horse in the 1920s.

The Dollar Horse

Harcourt, Brace & World, New York, 1961, illus William M Hutchinson

Scholastic, pb, 1964

Keery is 10, and wants a horse for his birthday.  However, he gets a single dollar, so has to work out how
to spend the dollar and earn enough money to buy his longed for horse.

If I Rode a Horse

Lothrop, Lee & Shepard, New York, 1973, illus Robert Quackenbush (unpaginated)

A picture book:  A boy daydreams about the sorts of horses and riding he wants to do when at last he gets a
horse.

Miriam Burt Young (1913- 1974 ) wrote widely for children.  Her mother’s youth in the San Francisco of the 1880s formed the subject matter of No Place for Mitty, and she wrote about her actor parents in Mother Wore Tights, which became a musical in 1947, starring Betty Grable.  

Of her children’s books, four that I know of were horse books - there may well be more, so please let me know if I’ve missed anything out.

Miriam Burt Young’s books also appeared under the shorter name Miriam Burt: worth remembering when you are looking for her books!  

Finding the books:  Prance is very expensive; the other books are all easy to find, though Up and Away can be pricey.  None were published in the UK.

Sources and links:

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

Mother Wore Tights at IMDB

A list of her books, with illustrations of some

Bibliography - horse books only

Up and Away

Harcourt, New York, 1960, illus Sam Savitt

Wendy and Maureen are eager to learn how to ride.  Tim, a talkative Irish groom, agrees to teach them as long
as they pay for their lessons with hard work.