Bianca Bradbury (1908-1982)

American author of children's novels. Born in Connecticut in 1908. She was a fairly prolific author with over 40 books to her name, as well as short stories, poetry and magazine articles. Her books range from picture books for young children to uncompromising novels for young adults, often exploring controversial subjects. She was an animal lover and many of her children's stories featured animals. One of them was a pony story which dealt with serious issues involving where horses can be kept. Another featured a meddling donkey.

Horse & Pony Books:

HAPPY ACRES
FIRST EDITION STECK [USA] 1958
ILLUSTRATED BY BETSY WARREN
SUMMARY: Animal story for younger readers featuring a donkey and a farm horse. All is fine at Happy Acres Farm until a strange donkey appears and causes unrest by bragging to the farm horse about how easy his life is without having to work like the silly animals on the farm. The horse passes this message on to the other animals and soon nobody on the farm wants to work any more. But will this really make their lives better?

MY PRETTY GIRL
FIRST EDITION HOUGHTON MIFFLIN [USA] 1974
ILLUSTRATED BY CHARLES ROBINSON
SUMMARY: Shannon is given a horse but has nowhere suitable to keep her new mare. This leads to her getting involved in a neighbourhood dispute in which some people want to ban keeping horses in the area.

Collector's Info:
My Pretty Girl is fairly easy to find in the USA and usually cheap. Happy Acres is a little bit rarer and may be a bit more pricey. Both books are a lot harder to find elsewhere.