19 books like Winnie the Horse Gentler

I am far from being a young adult, but I still found this charming book enlightening. The protagonist is a young woman who disguises herself as a man so she may join the equestrian military force patrolling the West Coast to spot submarines offshore.

The story also touches on the very sad fact that Japanese people were rounded up, deprived of their property, and confined in camps in California during WWII.

Although I enjoy reading fiction the most, this true story, Pinto, intrigued me because the “star” of the show is a horse. Set in 1912, four men, called the "Overland Westerners," decided fame and fortune awaited them as they embarked on the longest horseback ride in history. Their goal was to visit all 48 state capitals in 3 years and complete their journey at the San Francisco World's Fair on June 1, 1915. Facing rugged roads, raging rivers, thieves, and near starvation, the men went through 17 horses. Only one horse completed the entire journey... Pinto, a little horse with a heart as big as the sky! The page-turning book describes Pinto's account of his dangerous adventure. 

I recommend this classic nonfiction book because it introduced me to the wonderful world of horses when I was a young child. I read the book so often through my young years, I could name every horse featured in the book and tell you all about him without referring to the book. I still have my first copy of this beautifully illustrated book that describes 25 different horse breeds in simple language for children to understand. From this book, I learned about horse breeds, horse traits, and the wonders of such amazing animals. It’s a book that every horse-loving child (and older!) should own.

This was the first book I ever pulled from the big kids’ shelves at our library. I read it in the big chair in the den until Mother chased me outside with dire threats that I was ruining my eyes. 

Then I read among straw bales and a heap of yard cats until nightfall lured the cats away. Then I read in bed until Mother threatened further direness if I didn’t turn off my light. Then I read by moonlight until I fell asleep and woke again the next day to read more.

A shipwreck, an island, and a horse. A little barn in the suburbs. These were the opposite of my world. During the hours I spent with this book, I became an escape reader.

What I loved most about this collection of free verse persona poetry were the poems about women in the Bible.

I found certain lines sticking with me, such as “I danced,” reflecting the cavalier attitude King Herod’s step-daughter Salome had regarding her part in the beheading of John the Baptist. The author was also thought-provoking in her viewpoint of motives for women such as Bathsheba.

The rest of the book is filled with poems about the author, Childress, growing up in Appalachia. However, the biblical women poems, in my opinion, are among the best I have read in this sub-genre. 

Francine Rivers has always been a master at writing biblical fiction.

As a teen my daughter read many of Rivers’s novels. But I never took the time to do so until another best-selling author recommended to me A Lineage of Grace. It is a collection of short stories, nearly the length of novellas, following five women in the lineage of Jesus Christ. 

The story that captured me most was Tamar’s. I had never thought about her viewpoint as a Canaanite, or why she went to the extreme measure she did, pretending to be a prostitute, to hold her father-in-law Judah to his promise and bare his children.

I love books that make me see something on a slant, from a different viewpoint. There are also Bible study questions at the end of each woman’s story.

As a journalist, author Shannon Bream did not disappoint by applying her skills to deep research of the 16 women she wrote about in this nonfiction book.

I have studied the Bible nearly my entire life and hadn’t realized Hagar was the first person to see an angel and the first to give God a name – El Ro-i, “the God of seeing.” Bream sets this book up in an unusual manner by pairing two women per chapter. Very unique!

After my poetry book about Bible women released, people kept asking if I had read The Women of the Bible Speak. (Our titles are even similar.) I had not read her book. (It is common to not read what you are writing about so as not to be influenced.)

Once I read Bream’s book, it was evident why people saw mine as a companion. I am a fan now,… show more.

I attended a Bible study where the male leader had the “Marys” in the New Testament mixed up. Once home, I sorted the women out. It can be confusing.

Such as, there are two different accounts of women anointing Jesus’ feet and wiping them with their hair—Mary from Bethany and an unnamed sinner woman. Salome (Virgin Mary’s sister) is sometimes called Mary. There were three Marys at the tomb. 

In Women Who Followed Jesus, author Dani Daley Mackall dramatizes nine women (including four Marys) in narrative (historical fiction) accounts of their encounters with Jesus. Before each woman’s story are scriptures. After each first-person biblical account are questions for reflection and a prayer.

This book clarified the women and gave insight into how they may have felt. I also learned about Jewish customs because of the deep research. 

I loved Lioness because it took such incredible inner strength for the daughters of Zelophehad to stand before Moses, as judge, and argue their case for equal rights for women regarding inheritance laws.

The characters and time period became so real to me that I read through this novel series, following the daughters to Canaan. The author spun a fiction tale around the biblical account and filled it with deep historical background, plus touched on the emotional core of Mahlah and her sisters.

I love Britton’s writing, too; it reminds me of Joyce Landorf’s fiction style.   

I love to boogie, especially with kids and grandkids. We are a family of animal lovers, believers in Jesus, and crazy (in-house) dancers. This book has it all! The rhythm of each line is a song and dance as each animal boogie woogie oogies. Kids pick up animal movements: elephants stomp, stomp boogie woogie oogie; monkeys swing; birds fly. Child listeners get to guess which animal swings in trees or flies in the sky.

There is much joy to be found as the animals, readers, and listeners do the Animal Boogie.