Horses book series in reading order

by Lauren Brooke

by Walter Farley

by Terri Farley

by Stacy Gregg

by Lucy Daniels

by Marsha Hubler

by Terri Farley

by Ben M. Baglio

by Lauren Brooke

by Ben M. Baglio

The Saddle Club made Bonnie Bryant's name. Bantam Books published that horse series from October 1988 to November 2001, and this catalogue of 100 titles covers the same span, opening with Horse Crazy (1988) and closing with Best Friends (2001). Bryant, born in New York in 1946, also published as B.B. Hiller. Horses, riding clubs and friendship are the standing subjects, pitched at grades 3 to 5, at a median of 144 pages.

Lauren Brooke is the name on Heartland, a children's series about a Virginia horse farm where rescued and traumatised horses are rehabilitated. The catalogue holds 38 books published between 2000 and 2010, split across Heartland, its Heartland Special volumes and the boarding-school spin-off Chestnut Hill. Coming Home (2000) opens the run and Far and Away (2010) closes it. Teenage girls, horsemanship, grief and fathers and daughters head the subject list.

Walter Farley

28 books• 2 series

Horses carry Walter Farley's work. The American author's first book, The Black Stallion (1941), introduced the stallion called the Black and the character Alec Ramsay, and sequels followed for decades. The catalogue records 28 books to 1989, the year of Farley's death, among them The Island Stallion (1948), The Black Stallion Revolts (1953) and the Little Black Pony series. Farley's son Steven has continued the series since. Horse racing, harness racing and training recur as subjects.

Horses carry the work of Terri Farley, an American writer of children's and young adult fiction. The Phantom Stallion series and its Wild Horse Island continuation account for most of her 39 catalogued books, set on ranches and around mustangs in the contemporary and historic West. Seven Tears into the Sea is her other widely read title, and Farley wrote the adult romance series Magical Love and Haunting Hearts as Tess Farraday. The run opens with The Wild One (2002) and reaches Horse Girl in 2026.

Marguerite Henry (born Marguerite Breithaupt, 13 April 1902 to 26 November 1997) was an American children's author who wrote fifty-nine books drawn from true stories of horses and other animals. King of the Wind, a 1948 horse book, won Henry the Newbery Medal, and two other Henry books were runners-up. Misty of Chincoteague (1947), one of those runners-up, led to several related titles and the 1961 film Misty. The catalogue lists 34 Henry books from Birds at Home (1942) to Brown Sunshine of Sawdust Valley (1996), including Justin Morgan Had a Horse (1945). Subjects include ponies, the Chincoteague pony and horse racing.

Stacy Gregg is a New Zealand author best known for Pony Club Secrets, children's novels about horses whose titles pair a pony with an event: Mystic and the Midnight Ride (2007), Blaze and the Dark Rider (2007), Comet and the Champion's Cup (2008), Storm and the Silver Bridle (2009). Issie and Blaze are among the recurring characters. At the 2024 New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults, Gregg's Nine Girls took the Margaret Mahy Book of the Year. The catalogue holds 32 titles, with Spellbound Ponies and Pony Club Rivals beside the main series.

Jessica Burkhart is the pen name of Jessica Ashley, an American author born in 1987 who works in tween fiction. The Canterwood Crest novels are hers. Nineteen books are catalogued between 2009 and 2015, carrying a Grades 3-5 reading level, from Take the Reins (2009) to Wild Hearts (2015). Subjects recorded across the listing include horses, horsemanship, boarding schools, private schools, teenage girls, friendship and cliques.

Lauraine Snelling is an American author of Christian fiction who has published since 1982. Snelling's historical series draw on Norwegian immigration and the author's own heritage. The Scandinavian-American Hall of Fame inducted Snelling in 2012 at Norsk Høstfest, and sales exceed 5 million copies. The catalogue counts 102 books, from Tragedy on the Toutle (1982) to Fair Are the Meadows (2026). Series include Golden Filly, High Hurdles, Red River of the North, Dakota Plains, Daughters of Blessing and Leah's Garden, with horses, pioneer life and North Dakota among the subjects.

Ben M. Baglio, born in New York City in 1960, is an American author who created the brief for two children's book series, Animal Ark and Dolphin Diaries. Animal Ark features Mandy Hope, the child of vets, who helps injured animals and solves animal mysteries. Dolphin Diaries follows a Florida family of marine biologists who study dolphins around the world. Commissioned writers produced the books under Baglio's instruction, and UK editions used the pseudonym Lucy Daniels. The catalogue also lists Animal Ark Pets, Animal Ark Hauntings and Pet Finders Club.

Lucy Daniels is the name on 108 children's books published from 1995 to 2019, with Animal Ark, an imaginary place and organization, among the subjects. Donkey on the Doorstep (1995) is the earliest title, and Llama on the Loose (2019) the newest. Series include Little Animal Ark, New Animal Ark, Animal Ark Holiday Special, Jess: The Border Collie, Nine Lives, Safari Summer, Little Dolphin and Hope Meadows. Subjects include veterinarians, horses, riding schools, dogs, cats, kittens and dolphins.

Alexa Pearl writes children's fiction for grades 1 to 3. The catalogue holds 11 books from 2017 to 2020, with horses, mythical animals, princesses, friendship, magic and secrets among the subjects. Early titles include The Big Secret (2017) and Princess Lessons (2017), and The Best Birthday Party Ever (2020) is the newest. The median book is 98 pages.

Marsha Hubler's 17 catalogued books run from Draw Me Closer, Lord (2003) to Tommi Pockets (2019). Series under the Hubler name are Keystone Stables, Loves of Snyder County and Snyder County Quilting Bee. Recorded subjects include children's fiction, horses, foster home care, Christian life, friendship and people with disabilities. A True Test for Skye (2004), The Trouble with Skye (2004) and Skye's Final Test (2005) are among the titles. You've Decided to Homeschool, Now What? (2007) is also listed, along with The Long Ride Home (2010) and The Secret of Wolf Canyon (2010).

Nancy Springer, born July 5, 1948, is an American author of fantasy, young adult literature, mystery and science fiction. Larque on the Wing won the 1994 Tiptree Award, and the Mystery Writers of America gave Springer Edgar Awards for Toughing It in 1995 and Looking for Jamie Bridger in 1996. I am Mordred earned the Pennsylvania Library Association's Carolyn W. Field Award in 1999. The first Enola Holmes book appeared in 2006. The catalogue lists 90 Springer books from The White Hart (1979) to Enola Holmes and the Clanging Coffin (2026), with the Book of Isle, Rowan Hood and Tale of Camelot series alongside.

Eve Bunting, born Eve Bolton, was a Northern Irish-born American writer of more than 250 books who lived from December 19, 1928, to October 1, 2023. Bunting wrote fiction and non-fiction, mainly novels for children and young adults, and also wrote the text of picture books. Many of the books are set in Northern Ireland, where Bunting grew up, while others range in subject from Thanksgiving to riots in Los Angeles. The Two Giants (1971) was Bunting's first book. Series in the catalogue include Frog and Friends, Horse Stories, Dinosaur Machines and Pirate Captain's Daughter, and subjects include animals, horses, stories in rhyme and mystery stories.

Jane Smiley

40 books• 6 series

Jane Smiley, born September 26, 1949, is an American novelist and the winner of the 1992 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for A Thousand Acres (1991). The catalogue holds 40 Smiley books from Barn Blind (1980) to Lidie: The Further Travels and Adventures of Lidie Newton (2026). The Greenlanders (1988), Moo (1995) and The All-True Travels and Adventures of Lidie Newton (1998) are among the titles. Series include Horses Of Oak Valley Ranch, Last Hundred Years: A Family Saga and Ellen and Ned. Subjects include horses, ranch life and rural families.

Max Brand

345 books• 13 series

Max Brand was the main pen name of Frederick Schiller Faust, an American writer who died in 1944 and whose westerns fill most of a 345-title catalogue. Faust also created Dr. James Kildare, a young medical intern, for pulp fiction; the character later carried into Paramount and MGM films, radio, two television series and comics. Other Faust pseudonyms include George Owen Baxter, John Frederick, Evan Evans, David Manning, Peter Dawson, George Challis and Frederick Frost. Series strands include Silvertip, Dan Barry, Thunder Moon, Ronicky Doone and Bull Hunter. Harrigan (1918) is the earliest catalogued title, with reissues dated as late as 2022.

Mary Pope Osborne

166 books• 9 series

Mary Pope Osborne, born May 20, 1949, is an American children's author and audiobook narrator best known for the Magic Tree House series, which had sold more than 134 million copies worldwide by 2017. Awards have gone to both the series and Osborne, including recognition for work promoting children's literacy. Osborne attended the University of North Carolina and published a first book in 1982. The catalogue counts 166 Osborne books, from Run, Run, As Fast As You Can (1982) to Sea Otter Sunrise (2025). Time travel, tree houses, history, folklore and Greek mythology appear among the subjects.

Carolyn Keene is a Stratemeyer Syndicate pen name, the credit on the Nancy Drew mysteries. Mildred Wirt Benson, one of the writers behind the name, used it from 1929 to 1953 and contributed to 23 of the first 30 Nancy Drew books. The catalogue lists 647 Carolyn Keene books, beginning with The Secret of the Old Clock, The Hidden Staircase and The Bungalow Mystery (all 1930) and reaching Vans & Villains (2026). Series include Nancy Drew Mystery Stories, Nancy Drew Files, Nancy Drew and the Clue Crew, Nancy Drew Diaries, Nancy Drew: Girl Detective and Dana Girls Mystery Stories.

Daisy Meadows is the name on the Rainbow Magic children's books, a fantasy line whose subjects include fairies, goblins, Jack Frost and two girls, Kirsty Tate and Rachel Walker. The catalogue opens in 2003 with colour-fairy titles such as Ruby the Red Fairy, Amber the Orange Fairy and Fern the Green Fairy, and runs to Nur the Vlogger Fairy (2023). Sub-series include the Weather, Jewel, Party, Pet Keeper, Dance, Ocean and Showtime Fairies. Magic Animal Friends appears under the same name.

Amish life supplies the setting for Linda Byler's Christian romances. Lizzie (2003) opens a catalogue of 55 titles that reaches A Christmas Surprise (2026), with Lizzie Searches For Love, Sadie's Montana, Lancaster Burning, Hester's Hunt for Home and Stepping Stones among the series. Courtship, teachers, horses and Pennsylvania fill the subject tags.

Dame Catherine Cookson (born Catherine Ann McMullen, 20 June 1906 to 11 June 1998) was a British novelist. A hard childhood in South Shields, North East England, shaped the novels and supplied their setting. By 2003 Cookson's books had sold an estimated 100 million copies, and 104 titles appeared under the Cookson name and two pen names. The catalogue records 112 books, from Kate Hannigan (1950) to The Rag Maid (2017). Series include Mary Ann Shaughnessy, the Bailey Chronicles, the Mallen Trilogy and the Hamilton Trilogy. Working-class life, family sagas and historical romance appear among the subject tags.

Vicki Lewis Thompson, born 11 October 1950, is an American romance novelist who has also published as Cory Kenyon and, with Mary Tate Engels, as Corey Keaton. The catalogue holds 174 books from Mingled Hearts (1984) to When a Cowboy Falls Hard (2026), including Promise Me Sunshine (1984), When Angels Dance (1985) and The Fix-It Man (1986). Sons of Chance, McGavin Brothers, NERDS, Rowdy Ranch, Thunder Mountain Brotherhood, Buckskin Brotherhood, Wild About You and Hex are among the series. Cowboys, westerns, Harlequin Blaze, paranormal romance and werewolves appear in the subjects.

Guardians of Ga'Hoole is one of the series by Kathryn Lasky, an American children's writer born June 24, 1944, who writes for adults as Kathryn Lasky Knight and E. L. Swann. Lasky's children's work also includes Dear America and The Royal Diaries books, Wolves of the Beyond, Sugaring Time and The Night Journey, and honours include a Newbery Honor, the National Jewish Book Award and the Anne V. Zarrow Award for Young Readers' Literature. The catalogue holds 159 books from I Have Four Names for My Grandfather (1976) to Sacred Light (2026), including Tugboats Never Sleep (1977), The Weaver's Gift (1980) and Beyond the Divide (1983). Horses Of The Dawn, Bears Of The Ice and Camp Princess are further series, and subjects name owls, wolves, diaries and Jews.

Don Coldsmith (February 28, 1926 - June 25, 2009) was an American writer mainly of Westerns and a past president of Western Writers of America. Coldsmith produced more than 40 books and hundreds of newspaper and magazine articles. The Spanish Bit Saga, a sequence of related novels, reshaped the Western by telling events from the Native American point of view. The catalogue lists 41 books from Horsin' Around (1975) to Moon of Madness (2013), including Trail of the Spanish Bit (1980), Buffalo Medicine (1981) and Pale Star (1986). The Great Plains and horses recur in the subjects.