Margaret Pearce

Australian children's author. Born in Melbourne. Like many authors she was an avid reader who decided to turn her hand at writing. Although her first love is sci-fi, she has written quite a few children's novels including a pony series about a boy called John and his horse and dog, however I am having trouble working out the publishing history of the books. Luckily they are all available at the moment in print or e-book format which means that unless you are looking for first editions only the publishing history is not too important.

Jumping Into Trouble Series/John and Joanie Series
Originally consisted of the first 2 books only. In 2013 a third title was added to the series and it was officially labelled as the Jumping into Trouble series. Reading order is different to publishing order.

READING ORDER:

1) WANTED: A HORSE
(SCHOLASTIC [AUS] 1983)
(1st UK edition PUFFIN 1983)
Reprinted by Longman Cheshire in 1989.
Published in the USA by Writers Exchange in 2013
EDITION PICTURED: Unknown edition, Writers Exchange edition.
SUMMARY: John desperately wants a horse but his parents are unsympathetic. His friend Jenny shares her pony with him and together they find his own horse, Roanie. But then his problems really start as he finds his efforts to look after the horse and earn money to keep him, are hindered by the presence of a small blue heeler dog which attaches itself to him!

2) CIRCUS RUNAWAYS
(Possibly first published SCHOLASTIC {AUS] date unknown)
(1st UK edition PUFFIN [UK] 1978)
ILLUSTRATED BY LAUREN MURRAY
Published in the USA by Writers Exchange in 2013
Not sure of the publishing history of this one. It was published in the UK by Puffin - this may be the first edition however it is possible  that it was first published in Australia by Scholastic. Unfortunately I have never seen that particular edition so I am not certain. If anyone can shed light on the matter please drop me a line!
EDITIONS PICTURED: Puffin edition, Writers Exchange edition.
SUMMARY: John, Roanie and his dog Blue are runaways and end up at a circus

3) MISSING: A HORSE
(WRITERS EXCHANGE [USA] 2013)
Paperback original.
Reprinted in paperback by Createaspace in 2015
EDITION PICTURED: Writers Exchange edition.
SUMMARY: John and his friend find both their horses have gone missing!

Other Editions (E-book Only):

Jumping into Trouble Collection
(WRITERS EXCHANGE [USA] 2014 E-book)
SUMMARY: Omnibus edition containing all 3 books in the series. At the time of this update (2015) it is available only as a e-book.

Collector's Info:
Paperback originals, don't think there were any hardback edition. I am not 100% sure of the publishing history of these books which is rather complicated and also made more problematic by the fact the reading order seems to be different to the publishing order! I assume the author wrote Circus Runaways first then Wanted: A Horse as a prequel. These two were first published in the 1970s/80s. In 2013 the two books were joined by a new third book about John and Roanie to make up the Jumping into Trouble trilogy All were published by Writers Exchange in the USA. This edition of the series is in print in the USA and UK and easy to find. The books are also all available as e-books. There is also an e-book 3 in 1 containing the full series although at the time of writing it is not yet available as a paperback. The older editions of the books can be hard to track down.