Barbara Holland Books In Order

Publication Order of Non-Fiction Books

Publication Order of Children's Books

Barbara Holland was a published American author of novels. She was known for writing fiction novels as well as writing to defend the perception of modern vices. These included drinking alcohol, cursing, eating foods that are ‘fatty’, and smoking cigarettes.

Holland was born on April 5, 1933. She grew up in Maryland in a place called Chevy Chase that was close to Washington D.C. She would later pen a memoir of that time in her childhood growing up in that area.

Her parents would get a divorce early in her life, when she was just a child. Her mother would go on to remarry a man named Thomas Holland. Barbara did not like her stepfather at all, and would later write that she, along with all of her friends, was afraid of their fathers due to their anger. Her mother would go on to have four more children. She would also go into writing as well as illustrating, mainly books for children. This included the 1958 book A Big Ball of String, which was one of the early Beginner Books released from Random House.

Barbara likewise got into writing and did quite well. She entered a poetry competition held by the National Scholastic while she was enrolled in high school multiple times and in consecutive years. She was actually the first junior to win and when she won the next school year, became the first person that had won the contest twice.

Once Barbara had graduated and was on her own, she liked pursuing the ability to work and support herself financially. In the early part of the fifties, she got a job at a department store called Hecht’s. She also responded to the essay by Virginia Woolf written in 1929 called “A Room of One’s Own” where she countered the idea that a woman needs her own room and money to write fiction, saying that a woman must have a job.

Holland then relocated, choosing to move to the city of Philadelphia. There she worked at an ad agency as a copywriter. She also started writing short stories as well as articles. These were published in a variety of places, from Seventeen to Redbook and McCall’s as well as Ladies’ Home Journal. Then she began having some of her children’s books published. She would follow these up with her 1980 autobiographical book Mother’s Day in 1980, which recalled her experiences of working on a full time basis while also raising children.

One of her more popular books came out in 1988, titled The Name of the Cat. The book was updated by the author and then was reissued as Secrets of the Cat in subsequent years. She also published three different collections of essays. One was Endangered Pleasures, which was published in 1995 and defended indulgences such as martinis, profanity, naps and bacon. The other was the 1997 collection Bingo Night at the Fire Hall. Her third collection came out in 1999 and was titled Wasn’t The Grass Greener?. She is well known for Endangered Pleasures, in which she expressed her opinions on letting ‘new Puritans’ take over and denying to ourselves ‘harmless delights’ with these common vices.

She has written other works including Hail to the Chiefs and Gentleman’s Blood. She also wrote a 2005 memoir titled When All the World Was Young. The book went over her experience growing up during World War II and after. She also wrote a book titled The Joy of Drinking, where she made a protest against healthy foods and exercise as well as Starbucks.

Barbara was married several times but all three would result in divorces. She lived in Philadelphia for much of her life. In 1990 she moved to Virginia and in her Bluemont cabin composed many of her books. She died there on September 7, 2010, due to lung cancer. She had three children and grandchildren that continue her legacy.

The Pony Problem is one of the early books to be published from Holland. The book was originally released in 1977. It also enjoyed a later printing in the early nineties from Puffin Books.

This story features a young girl named Jean Monroe. She enters into a contest and is surprised when she wins a pony. The pony’s name is Hopscotch and she is thrilled at the prospect of having a pony. After all, what little girl would not want a pony?

But while Jean may be thrilled, her neighbors are less than happy with the result. They do all that they can to try and make sure that the pony is gone. Jean is horrified when the ASPCA shows up with the intent of taking away Hopscotch. It turns out that the neighbors have finally found a way to get in between the girl and her new pet.

Right there and then Jean understands that it’s going to take a miracle to save her pony. Can she do it? Read this classic book to find out!

Prisoners at the Kitchen Table was a book from Barbara Holland first published in 1979. This novel is a cautionary tale about what can happen when children are out there in the world and adults with bad intentions decide to try and kidnap them.

The book is about two friends with very different personalities. One is outgoing and the other is shy. But none of that matters one day when they end up being involved in a kidnapping where they are the targets.

It’s a bad situation to be in for sure. The two must figure out a way that they can escape from their kidnappers. Will they be able to find a way out? Or are their kidnappers far too intelligent to ever let them escape? This is a book intended for children but can be read by kids or adults. Luckily, the book is not too graphic and is not a true scary story in terms of scarring anyone for life.

Can the two get away and back to their lives? Read this book by Holland to find out what happens in the end!