In 1953 somebody gave me a horse&kid book called "Laurie" by Estelle Barnes Clapp. The heroine was exactly like me, a hot-tempered square-peg of a girl who had given her heart to a horse she saw looking over a fence as her schoolbus went by. How she ached to touch, to ride, to own that animal! How I read that book! Over and over and over! I don't know why the print didn't burn off the page under the laser intensity of my gaze.

Laurie's parents were (of course) skeptical that she could calm down enough to take on the big responsibility of horse care; but Laurie plowed relentlessly on, enlisting the help of friends to get her at least near, if not on, the horse. Would she ever win her parents' trust and her horse? Reading it was AGonizing, every time, I'm telling you!

I've been trying to find the book (not for me, I have it memorized to this day) but for a young kid who wanted to buy a copy of "Sam." My book is definitely for 12 and up, because it gets pretty grim and gritty during the final 2/3 of it; even though it ends well for everybody.

So I told this child she should read "Laurie" instead, which gives you all the gut-wrenching and heartache but none of the depressing stuff. I've been looking for the book online today.

It was re-printed by Grosset & Dunlap in England as part of the "Famous Horse" series, still available as used books; and you can still get used copies of the 60-year-old original, published by Dutton in 1953. If you love horse stories with wonderful lovable people in them, you should scare up a copy and give it to your 10-year-old. Then read it yourself. It's as good as ever.