Jill: the Reading Order Question

If you have a set of the paperback Jill books, and you’ve been busy replacing them with the hardback versions, you might have noticed that the reading order is different in the original hardbacks.

The original publication and reading order of the Jill books is:

1.  Jill’s Gymkhana (1949)
2. A Stable for Jill (1951)
3. Jill Has Two Ponies (1952)
4. Jill Enjoys Her Ponies (1954)
5. Jill’s Riding Club (1956)
6. Rosettes for Jill (1957)
7. Jill and the Perfect Pony (1959)
8. Pony Jobs for Jill (1960)
9. Jill’s Pony Trek (1962)

The Knight paperbacks have altered this reading order.

1. Jill’s Gymkhana
2. A Stable for Jill
3. Jill Has Two Ponies
4. Jill Enjoys Her Ponies/Jill and the Runaway
5. Jill’s Riding Club
6. Challenges/Pony Jobs for Jill
7. Jill and the Perfect Pony
8. Rosettes for Jill
9. Jill’s Pony Trek

In the Knight editions, Rosettes and Pony Jobs/Challenges change places. Why Pony Jobs/Challenges should be read at number six is a mystery: it is very obviously the last chronologically, with Jill and Ann both having left school.

The picture above shows the reading order as printed on the original hardbacks (my copies of Stable and Two don’t have dustjackets and obviously Jill’s Gymkhana in its first edition state isn’t numbered.)

The set of paperbacks below is (mostly) the Black Horseshoe Knight printing, but all Knight printings, as far as I know, kept the same printing order.