Smoky, the Cowhorse (1927) by Will James totally informed my childhood. I was seriously and comprehensively horsemad, but what caught my heart about Smoky is the genuineness of it—that there are good times and bad, that real life does not make a neat story arc, and that some wounds do not and cannot heal.
—Robin McKinley,
winner of the 1985 Newbery Medal for The Hero and the Crown
[...] (1985) a) Crispin: The Cross of Lead by Avi (2003) b) Number the Stars by Lois Lowry (1990) c) Smoky, the Cowhorse by Will James [...]