Pluto: Brave Lipizzaner Stallion

by Anne Colver

The fate of the royal Lipizzaner horses sequestered in an Austrian village during World War II becomes uncertain when the American occupation troops demand all available horses. Pluto leads the stallions in a performance to gain General Patton's protection.

48 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1978

About the author

Polly Anne Colver Harris (1908-1991) is listed in the WorldCat author identification database variously as Polly Anne Colver Harris, Anne Colver, Polly Anne Colver Graff, Polly Anne Colver, and Colver Harris. According to the Gale Literature Resource Center, she wrote 18 children’s stories and biographies, some with her husband Stewart Graff, under the names Anne Colver and Polly Anne Graff, three volumes of historical fiction for adults under the name Anne Colver, and three mysteries for adults under the name Colver Harris.

Anne Colver, whose father, William Byron, was one of the founders of the Scripps-Howard newspaper chain, almost followed in his footsteps by publishing her own newspaper, "The Weekly Bugle," at the age of 12. On May 16, 1929 she married Markham Harris. The marriage produced one son and the couple divorced in 1942. On March 3, 1945 Anne married S. Stewart Graff. This marriage produced one daughter and Anne remained married to Graff until her death in 1991. Besides family and writing, Anne Colver enjoyed gardening, cooking and reading.

Reviews

[Pat Knight · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's an older children's book from 1978. But a pleasing story of Max, who loves horses, and some Lipazzaners that were taken to safety in World War ll.

[Rena Sherwood · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is yet another fictional look at how the Lipizzanners survived World War II. Which makes me really pissed off since one stud near Sarajevo was wiped out in the 1990's by war and nobody cared.

ANYWAY, this is a cute little story with some really nice illustrations by Sam Savitt. However, there are some factual inaccuracies such as how Lipizzanners are named. They are not given one name -- they always get two names based entirely on the names of their sires and dams. Pluto, therefore, is not the name of a horse from WWII but the name of one of the seven foundation stallions of the Lipizzaner breed. I've got a feeling the story of THAT Pluto would have been more interesting.