Useful Organisations No.55: Jane Badger Books

www.janebadgerbooks.co.uk

Jane Badger Books is the first and largest website specialising in English language horse and pony fiction. Jane Badger started the site in 2005 with a few pages about Ruby Ferguson’s ‘Jill’ books. Six years later there are over 700 authors featured on the site, with sections on everything from illustrators, through Black Beauty and on to breeds. Jane considers that, just because the books children like to read are sometimes seen as niche, there is no reason those books cannot be good. Jane Badger Books reviews current children’s horse and pony fiction, and provides information (alphabetically and via a search function) on a very wide variety of now out of print English language horse and pony books. Information is organised by author, with bibliographies and synopses. The definition of horse book is drawn rather wide. If a horse or pony is a substantial part of the plot, the book is included, so there is considerably more than the traditional girl-gets-pony novel. The site covers British, North American and Australasian authors, as well as works translated into English.