Many generations have dreamed of galloping through the Camargue region on Albert Lamorisse’s White Mane or living the adventures of Walter Farley’s Black Stallion. Children’s literature has been enriched with new stars to also satisfy the wishes of girls like Bonnie Bryan or Lauren Brooke: friendship with their horses or their friends from the pony club is the center of these narrative series, sometimes written by several hands. . .

The horse is also available in coloring books, with stickers or adhesives, as a pop-up book, to touch, to learn to read, to draw, to dream of glitter, magical ponies or enchanted unicorns. The editors regularly update the illustrated encyclopedias, picture books and technical methods adapted to each age group.

Today, children’s literature accounts for more than a third of publications on horses and riding. This category of publications has developed a lot since the middle of the 19th century. In fact, it was this category that allowed the first female authors to emerge.

Old books are highly prized by collectors. The Baldwin Library (University of Florida) has put online its excellent collection of Enfantines published in Great Britain and the United States.

Know more:

• Black Beauty / Sewell Anna, 1877
• Misadventures of a Knight / Sillag Émile, 1855
• Memoirs of a donkey – 1894 / Ségur La comtesse de, 1894
• The island of the centaurs / Robida Albert, 1910
• The Baldwin collection on the horse – digitized