Scott, Jim

About the author

Jim Scott (b.1912) wrote three books (to be more accurate, three that I’ve managed to track down). Two of his books were non fiction about sporting heroes, one of whom was Bob Mathias, Champion of Champions, the story of the Californian athlete who, despite suffering from anaemia as a child, won the decathlon at both the 1948 London and the Helsinki Olympic Games. Jim Scott’s one work of fiction was County Fair Colt (1957), the story of a boy whose one ambition in life is to become a jockey.

Finding the book
Reasonably easy to find.

Links and sources
Alice Schertle on the Children’s Literature Network (link no longer extant)
An interview with Alice Schertle (link no longer extant)
Terri Wear: Horse Stories: An Annotated Bibliography


Bibliography (horse books only)


County Fair Colt

Coward McCann Inc, New York, 1957, 255 pp.

Ted Dawson helps “Eagle Eye” Johnson with his thoroughbred mare, “Cinnamon Queen” at the local county fairgrounds. He is about to make his debut as her jockey. His mother does not approve, but Ted hopes to travel the circuit if the race goes well. When Eagle Eye adds John Silver, a rank grey colt to the barn, Ted doesn’t think much of the colt, and the feeling is mutual. When Cinnamon Queen is injured, and will never race again. Ted is forced to team up with the nervous colt, who won‘t even accept a saddle, let alone a rider.