About the author
Marion Dane Bauer (b.1938) was born in the shadow of the Illinois cement mill where her father worked, and remembers her childhood as idyllic, though school became progressively more difficult. She was an isolated child. Life became easier as she matured, and she studied journalism and English; worked as a teacher and raised a family, and then decided to write seriously. She wrote as a child, and her first remembered composition was a poem in praise of her teddy bear. She later became known for speaking out on homosexuality. Bauer is a prolific author for children, and one of her books, On My Honor was a Newbery Honor Book. She wrote just the one horse book, Touch the Moon, which is a fantasy in which a horse is able to talk.
Finding the book
The book is easy to find in both hardback and paperback versions. It was not published in the UK.
Links and sources
Marion Dane Bauer’s website
An interview with Marion Dane Bauer on Bookology
Harper Collins on Marion Dane Bauer
Many thanks to Susan Bourgeau for all her help with this section.
Bibliography (horse books only)
Touch the Moon
Clarion Books/Ticknor & Fields, New York, 1987, 77 pp, illus Alix Berenzy
Dell Yearling, 1989
Jennifer thought her father had promised her a real horse for her birthday. She is furious when what she gets is a china horse and riding lessons. However, there is much more to the figurine than she thought; it makes the beautiful golden palomino Moonseeker appear, and only Jennifer can see him. And indeed hear him, as he can talk. The two then get stuck in a cave.
