About the author
Patricia Harrison Easton met her husband when he was her professor at college; Richard Easton, Professor of English asked her out once final grades were in, and they married. She started to write once she had a family of her own, and it took her six years to get published. She grew up on a farm in Western Pennsylvania, showed Quarter Horses, and her family raised Standardbreds, which they used for harness racing, which is the subject of her novels Rebel’s Choice and Summer’s Chance.
Finding the books
All the books are very easy to find in the USA. None had a UK publication.
Links and sources
The Pony Book Chronicles on harness racing in horse books
Patricia Harrison Easton at Washington & Jefferson (link no longer works)
Many thanks to Lisa Catz for the pictures.
Bibliography (horse books only)
Rebel’s Choice
Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, San Diego, 1989, 153 pp
Rob Walsh is 16. He hopes that he will be able to work with his father in a horse business, but his family are not helping. His mother is a workaholic, his father is irresponsible, and his grandfather is over-protective. He takes refuge in beer, and the rowdy grooms who gather behind the barn.
Summer’s Chance
Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, San Diego, 1988, 150 pp
14-year-old Elizabeth Harter is at her grandmother’s for the summer. She has not seen her grandmother for 11 years, and is trying to find out about the mother she never knew. Elizabeth bonds only with a horse called Chance. Elizabeth is not the same as her mother, and is sure her grandmother is disappointed in her. Linda, a fifteen-year-old driver, is scornful of Elizabeth’s efforts.
Stable Girl: Working for the Family
Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, San Diego, 1991
This covers a day in the life of Danielle, who works in her family’s racing stable.