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Alison Hart aka Alice Leonhardt
Real name Alice Leonhardt. Born in Baltimore in 1950. She has written many children's books under both her real name and the Alison Hart pen-name, including animal stories, adventures and historical novels. Her pony stories include the well-known Riding Academy series and a modern continuation of the Ann Sheldon Linda Craig series, plus historical horse stories. She was also one of the ghost-writers for the Thoroughbred series.
As well as an author, she is also a teacher of special education, being especially interested in and involved with literacy issues. Her novel writing career began as an attempt to help her special needs students' learn to read. She started writing books with her students as the characters in order to encourage them to take an interest in the stories.
She hopes that her stories will encourage children to get excited about reading. She says: "when I write a book, literacy and aliteracy are very much on my mind. Is my story filled with suspense? Does it hook readers from the first chapter? Can readers relate to my characters? Will the story fill them with a sense of wonder? Will they love reading my book? When young readers tell me they couldn't put my book down, I know I'm on the right track. Obviously, my books will not solve reading literacy problems, but I hope they, and I, can do a small part."
Sources: www.biography.jrank.org
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Riding Academy Series: Pony/school series set in a boarding school in the USA which has its own riding school, and centring around 4 girls: Mary Beth, Andie, Jina and Lauren. Similar to the later Chestnut Hill series by Lauren Brooke, but I find these a lot more readable.
1) A HORSE FOR MARY BETH (RANDOM HOUSE 1994) (UK 1st edition MAMMOTH PB 1996) SUMMARY: Mary Beth arrives at Foxhall Academy School. She wants her new room-mates to like her, but they are all horse-mad and great riders and she is terrified of horses! Will she be able to overcome her fear and learn to ride?
2) ANDIE OUT OF CONTROL (RANDOM HOUSE 1994) (UK 1st edition MAMMOTH PB 1996) SUMMARY: Troublemaker Andie is always breaking the rules at Foxhall Academy and she doesn't care if she gets expelled. Then Mr. Magic, a horse as wild as Andie herself arrives. She falls in love with the horse and decides to stay and try to train him. But is he too wild even for her?
3) JINA RIDES TO WIN (RANDOM HOUSE 1994) (UK 1st edition MAMMOTH PB 1996)
4) LESSONS FOR LAUREN (RANDOM HOUSE 1994) (UK 1st edition MAMMOTH PB 1996) SUMMARY: Lauren's love of riding has caused her school-work to suffer and she is assigned a tutor for extra studying.
5) MARY BETH'S HAUNTED RIDE (RANDOM HOUSE 1994) (UK 1st edition MAMMOTH PB 1996) SUMMARY: Spooky goings on for the friends, with a Halloween party and a haunted trail ride!
6) ANDIE SHOWS OFF (RANDOM HOUSE 1994) (UK 1st edition MAMMOTH PB 1996) SUMMARY: Andie must try and convince her parents that Magic is the horse for her.
7) JINA'S PAIN IN THE NECK PONY (RANDOM HOUSE 1995) SUMMARY: Jina agrees to show a troublesome horse called Applejack.
8) THE CRAZIEST HORSE SHOW EVER (RANDOM HOUSE 1995) SUMMARY: An upcoming inter-schools riding competition has the girls at Foxhalls Academy bursting with excitement - except for Lauren, who is frightened to be taking part in a jumping class.
9) ANDIE'S RISKY BUSINESS (RANDOM HOUSE 1995) SUMMARY: Andie wants to raise money to buy a horse of her own and starts a horse grooming and cleaning business, roping all her unwilling friends into helping.
10) TROUBLE AT FOXHALL (RANDOM HOUSE 1995) SUMMARY: Lauren and Mary Beth are competing not only for the same horse but the same boy! Then Lauren disappears from their room and can't be found….
11) FOXHUNT (RANDOM HOUSE 1995) SUMMARY: When the four friends spend Thanksgiving break at Jina's house, Jina plans for them to all ride in the local hunt. But Mary-Beth and Lauren are anti-hunt and soon the friends are at loggerheads!
12) LAUREN RIDES TO THE RESCUE (RANDOM HOUSE 1995)
Other editions:
SUPER SPECIAL: HAUNTED HORSEBACK HOLIDAY (RANDOM HOUSE 1996) SUMMARY: On holiday in Colorada, the friends discover a mysterious wild horse and get mixed up in some ghostly goings-on!
Collectors Info: The first 6 books were also published in the UK, so are the easiest to find for UK readers. Books 7 to 9 were also supposed to have been published in the same UK series by Mammoth Books, but I have yet to find any of them, so I am not sure if they actually ever were. I am pretty certain however that books 10 onwards weren't ever published in the UK. They are all quite easy to find in the USA.
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