Francis, Dorothy Brenner

About the author

Dorothy Brenner Francis, who also writes as Dorothy Francis, grew up in Kansas, and studied at the University of Kansas, from where she graduated with a degree in music. She taught music, and continued to teach after she, her husband Richard and their daughters, moved to Iowa. Having had her first adult book rejected, she studied Phyllis Whitney’s A Mystery of the Golden Horn line by line, and once she’d put what she learned into practice, her stories were accepted. She was off and running, she said. Now she has published over 70 novels for both children and adults.

Four of her stories involve horses, though one I have included has really a rather tangential connection – the horse in question is from a carousel.

Finding the books
All are reasonably easy to find. None were published in the UK.

Links and sources
Terri A. Wear: Horse Stories, an Annotated Bibliography, Scarecrow Press, 1987
Dorothy Francis’ website (no longer extant)
Olathe Public School wall of honor


Bibliography (horse books only)


A Blue Ribbon for Marni

Avalon Books, NY, 1973
Thorndike Press, 1971 (large print)

Marni Justin works as a trainer at the CircleW ranch, which gives her a chance to make her
dream, which is  to have a horse of her own, come true…

Flint Hills Foal

Abingdon Press, Nashville, 1976, 127 pp, illus Taylor Oughton
Scholastic Paperback, 1976, 1978

Kathy has a new step-brother, Jay. He says he hates horses, but when the orphaned filly Flash is lost in a storm, Jay helps Kathy.

Borderland Horse

Perfection Learning, Logan, Iowa, 2001, 88 pp, illus Dea Marks

Jayhawk Horse Mystery

Perfection Learning, Logan, Iowa, 2001, 80 pp, illus William Ersland

Tangentially horse content – the horse in question is a wooden carousel horse.Cody and his friend Maria try to help an artist friend who was cheated when she bought the horse.