YA Horse Book - Post WWII

I read this book in the 1960s/1970s when I was a child and can't remember the author or title. It was a kids' book set in the 1940s after WWII. It was about a young girl who escapes Europe and comes to America. She is the companion to a girl crippled in the polio epidemic of 1943. The two girls are about the same age. Anyway, somehow a boy enters the picture - can't remember how - and he takes the two girls to a local stable where a group of horses have recently arrived from Hungary. The heroine recognizes one of the horses as a possible descendant of those her family (now deceased/disappeared) raised on a stud farm near Budapest.

This was a very poignant, lovely story - definitely not a typical teen romance and I'd love to find it again. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Horses and polio

SHOW RING ROGUE
By Patsey Gray
https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/patsey-gray/show-ring-rogue/

Dark Sunshine: Dorothy Lyons
Two years ago, horse-loving Blythe Hyland would have been thrilled to move back to Arizona, but that was before she got polio. A haunting dream of Blind Man's Pocket, a deep valley back in the mountains got Blythe back on a horse. In the pocket, she found a wild mare, trapped by a landslide. When she learns that it might be possible to rescue the mare, Blythe determines she will do the training, crippled or not.
Young girl with polio is unenthusiastic about her family's move to an Arizona ranch because she feels there is nothing for her there until she discovers the beautiful buckskin mare she calls Dark Sunshine.

Show Jumping Secret: Josephine Pullein-Thompson
http://pullein-thompson-archive.blogspot.com.au/2008/01/review-josephine-show-ju...
Charles is disabled in the leg due to a condition called polio.

King Sam (US Tall and Proud): Vian Smith
A girl stricken by polio will not make the painful effort to regain use of her leg until a lame horse provides the necessary incentive.

Any of those?

Ebay search on polio, horses brought up this, but it's a boy with polio.


HERO OF LESSER CAUSES by Julie Johnston
World War II has just been won, and everything seems possible to young Keely Connor. She sees herself as a hero on a white charger, able to conquer the world, even though in reality her charger is Lola, the placid horse that lives in the field behind her house. One fateful summer day her brother Patrick is stricken with polio. Here is an enemy Keely cannot conquer. With all the will in the world, she cannot pass on to Patrick her zest or her energy or her own good health. Keely's battle to save Patrick has become one of the classics of Canadian children's literature.

It's not Show jumping secret. I don't know the other books listed.

Definitely not Hero of Lesser Causes.

OK if none of the above more searching is in order. To be continued...

Thanks for the help - I really appreciate it. The heroine doesn't have polio and isn't American - she's the Hungarian refugee.

I'll check out the one author listed and see what her books look like.

Whoops - meant to say I'll check out the authors listed. Darn these fingers! I do know that it isn't one of Dorothy Lyons' books - although she's really good.

What was the earliest year you recall reading it? In the 1960s or in the 1970s? Early or later on in the decade if no exact year? Was it a new or older book? Any guess as to publisher? Hardcover or paperback?

I think I was about 12 or 13 - so that would make it 1969-70. I'm pretty sure it was a paperback. I may have borrowed it from a friend and had to return it, but I don't think so - I think it was mine. It was an older book, not just because of the setting, but also because I had to buy my own books and I never got "brand new ones." I always tried to keep my "horse" books but since my family wasn't much for reading - it didn't always work. Of course, being a grown-up, my house is wall to wall books now! Yippee!

-

Various searches later...

Google Books
horse polio companion girl book

Books for School Libraries: Recommended Books for Elementary, ... - Page 17
Washington (State). Superintendent of Public Instruction - 1955 - Snippet view -
Recommended Books for Elementary, Junior and Senior High Schools Washington (State). ... Mi was a Hungarian war refugee brought to this country as a companion for a girl her own age who was recovering from polio. ... The "blue" of course is for her excellent sportsmanship and love and training of her beloved horse.

Copy/paste within quotes and put in Google Books:

"Mi was a Hungarian war refugee brought to this country as a companion for a girl her own age who was recovering from polio."

Holt, 1954 $2.50 (7-9) Mi was a Hungarian war refugee brought to this country as a companion for a girl her own age who was recovering from polio. The characters in the story are true to life people. This should be an excellent book for ...

More specific to try and get the title and author:

"Holt, 1954 $2.50 (7-9) Mi was"

Hartwell, Nancy A "blue" for Illi; illus. by Don Sibley. Holt, 1954 $2.50 (7-9) Mi was a Hungarian war refugee brought to this country as a companion for a girl her own age who was ...

Even more specific... a search within the book.

Zoom in on image of book snippet.

Ah so it is "Illi".

A blue for Illi by Nancy Hartwell; illustrated by Don Sibley.
Goodreads says: It was later re-named to "Blue Ribbon Winner." It is the story of an European immigrant and her love of horses.

Kirkus Reviews
https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/nancy-hartwell/a-blue-for-illi/
Quote: By the author of Who Was Syl, Gabriella and other good mystery-career-romances, this story of a Hungarian girl's indoctrination to suburban New York and the change in her pessimistic view of life, passes the test for teen-age popularity with flying colors. Settled with the Enrights- a book reviewer and his wife and their crippled daughter Ardis, 17 year old Illi is beginning to feel wanted when Ardis' cousin Mark- breezy and, to Illi, too apt to take his friendships lightly- comes to stay with them. Then Neal, a boy who works on a neighboring farm, opens a new interest- horses. The round of friendships and antagonisms -- with an increasing group of young people as Illi's and Ardis' acquaintances widen- work themselves out to new understandings until Mark and Neal are on their way to solid careers, Ardis to new health and a happy marriage and Illi to a confirmation of her belief in the goodness of people. A book that faces a number of issues fairly, and squarely.
Pub Date: April 8th, 1954
Publisher: Holt

A "Blue" For Illi (1954)
A Blue For Illi (aka Blue Ribbon Winner)
Nancy Hartwell, il. Don Sibley
1954, Henry Holt and Company
http://ponybookchronicles.blogspot.com.au/2012/08/a-blue-for-illi-1954.html
review includes excerpt.

Covers on amazon paperback and hardcover.

Google Books to do one final thing: the polio reference.

The Booklist - Volume 50 - Page 383
1953 - Snippet view
A "blue" for Illi. bv Nancy Hartwell pseud.. Illus. by Don Sibley. 1954. ... from Hungary who comes to America to live with the Enwrights as a companion to their daughter who is recovering from polio.

Grin. Found it!!!!

Wow, you're so AWESOME - This book has been driving me crazy for days - I'm so going to look for it and buy it now!

Thank you so much!

Glad that was it! Bookfinder.com shows the cheapest but check condition, seller rating and postage on individual sites.

Bookel, you are amazing! That was incredible googling!

touchstone fairy : A Blue for Illi y Nancy Hartwell . Touchstone notes that it was republished as Blue Ribbon Winner .

It was already linked under the sentence "Ah so it is "Illi"."
That word Mi, by the way--it is obviously a poor scan that was not corrected for search results to Illi, I'm assuming. That often happens.

bookel, thank you for your hard work in doing this for others. :)