A Whisper of Horses

April 24, 2017
In this densely plotted dystopian novel, Welsh author Bethell’s debut, newly orphaned 12-year-old Serendipity sets out in search of supposedly extinct horses. Bethell divides her story into three distinct sections, the first of which reveals the dreary, sparsely populated Lahn Dan (once London), now characterized by a strict class system (Serendipity, a storyteller’s apprentice, belongs to the Pb worker class) and authoritarian regulations. An encounter with Miss Caritas, a high-caste Au, unearths a map in Serendipity’s locket that purports the existence of horses. The lure of these creatures and an injunction against orphans thrust Serendipity out of the claustrophobic city with an orphan boy, Tab, and his dog; tension mounts as sinister police forces pursue them. The tweaked locations (Bucknam Place, Gray Britain) and other words (“jeans” instead of “genes”) strongly establish this world but can be distracting. And while the cast is varied and engaging, there are also some familiar types, such as an all-knowing wizard operating a mechanical façade in the book’s final section. Even so, Bethell’s inventive heroine propels an action-packed adventure. Ages 9–12.

October 1, 2016

Gr 4-8-Serendipity lives in a dystopian walled city, Lahn Dan (formerly London), where only three classes exist: the Pbs (lead), Cus (silver), and Aus (gold). Having just lost her mother, Serendipity jumps at the chance to work with Professor Nimbus as a Cus storyteller. But things take a strange turn when she meets Miss Caritas, who helps Serendipity open the locket from her mother. Inside the locket she discovers a map that leads outside the wall around the city and purports to show where horses can be found. Serendipity is skeptical, as she has been told her entire life that horses, as well as the whole world outside the wall, were destroyed by deadly gases. But she does not want to spend her life as a Pbs, or even a Cus. She soon meets Tab and his dog, Mouse. Everything changes once Serendipity and Tab get outside the city, and she struggles to make sense of it all while searching for the horses and trying to avoid the Minister's men who seek to return her to Lahn Dan. The awkward dialect and wording that Serendipity uses to tell her story take some getting used to (words such as amazering, for example), but this makes for a slightly dark tale that's appropriate for middle grade readers. VERDICT A general purchase where middle grade dystopias are in demand.-Heidi Grange, Summit Elementary School, Smithfield, UT

Copyright 2016 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

March 15, 2017
Grades 4-7 Inside the walled city of Lahn Dan, Serendipity and her mother live as Pbs, the lowest of the city's three castes. When Serendipity's mother dies, she leaves Serendipity a figurine of a horse, an animal that has long been extinct in the world. Soon, she learns more about her mother's history and discovers a map that might lead to horses. When unnerving members of the upper caste start showing an interest in Serendipity, she joins forces with Tab, a scrappy orphan boy, and his dog, Mouse, fleeing out into the world in search of horsesif only the world they're running from doesn't catch up to them first. Savvy readers will quickly catch on that Serendipity's Lahn Dan is a futuristic, dystopian London (Lahn Dan is located in Gray Britain; the police are headquartered in Bucknam Place). This narrative style takes some getting used to, and Serendipity's journey can feel a bit disjointed, but for larger collections, this debut offers up a solid dose of middle-grade adventure.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)