About the author
Frances Wilbur wrote one horse book for children, a dog story, and a non fiction guide for the parent of the horse mad child. Look closely at the cover of this book in the section below – I bet it will be familiar. Frances Wilbur was born in 1918, in Mankato Minnesota, and after taking an English degree, became a senior cryptanalyst. (For those of you to whom, like me, this is a new term, it’s a codebreaker.) She married a diplomat, and had four children with him. They divorced amicably, and she then joined the Rose Bowl Riders Club with her horse, Holiday. With her second husband, whom she met at the Club, she ran a summer horsemanship camp in Southern California. After she wrote her first book, A Guide for the Parents of Horse-Crazy Kids, she suffered a stroke. She learned to type during rehabilitation sessions, and wrote her second book, A Horse Called Holiday.
She was working on another book, The Horse Next Door, when she died in 2006. Her daugher, Margo Sorenson, is also an author.
Finding the books
None of her books were published in the UK, but are easy and cheap to source in the US.
Links and sources
Frances Wilbur writes on the Children’s Literature Network (link no longer extant)
In memoriam notice (link no longer extant)
Many thanks to Susan Bourgeau for supplying the information and photographs used in this section.
Bibliography (horse books only)
A Horse Called Holiday
Scholastic, 1992
When Middie sees Holiday, she knows he’s the horse she’s been waiting for – a horse she can show, and a horse that will win. But then she discovers Holiday is deaf, and as a result, very, very scared. So far, Middie’s always taken the easy way out, but that won’t help Holiday. She loves the horse, but will that be enough?
A Guide for the Parents of Horse-Crazy Kids
Half Halt Press, 1990, illus Lynn Lyons
Frances Wilbur guides the parent who has probably had nothing whatever to do with a horse through the intricate maze necessary if your child has decided horses are their thing. She guides the reader through selecting a riding school or instructor, what to know before buying a horse, alternatives to horse ownership, and much, much more.
