April 23, 2024 by Pajama Press
Copy provided by Young Adult Books Central
After the death of her grandfather, Honey's grandmother is distraught, and wants to take off in their ice cream truck on a big adventure. Because things are not good in the world, the rest of the family packs up and goes along for the adventure. The mother is an editor, so brings a manuscript along with her, and the father is a mechanic. The trip goes well until the group goes over a bridge into a land of magical horses and find themselves unable to get back. They are not too alarmed, since Nanna's grandfather had also purportedly spend seven years in this land, and they settle down to grow food and make an idyllic life for themselves. They grow food, harvest mangoes and macadamia nuts, and have a few comforts like cell phone flashlights, thanks to the solar panels on the ice cream truck. They haven't been able to get any texts, most likely because of the mountains. The best thing for Honey and her younger brother Rumi are the wild horses. They've named them, and have a special relationship with Moongold, whom Honey rides bareback. The family believes that perhaps everyone in the world is gone except for them. Sometimes this is problematic; when Honey's sleeping bag rips when being washed and they have used up the last of the thread, she starts to see that this life might not be able to continue forever. When the father becomes ill and they suspect apendicitis, Honey decides that she will ride Moongold and try to find the bridge to cross to get help. She manages to do this, but the first people that she meets want to capture Moongold and sell him, and the two barely escape with three other horses the outlaws have captured. Honey and the horses end up meeting Abbie and her father, who own the stolen horses, and are able to use the grandmother's cell phone that Honey has taken to contact Honey's aunt. She's an ambulance driver located very close, and comes to Abbie's farm to meet Honey. She takes off with Moongold, leading the rescue team, and manages to cause the bridge to appear when she flies over the river with Moongold. Her father gets the medical attention he needs, and the family realizes that things are okay in the world, and plan their next steps.
This is a pandemic tale, and it's fairly clear that the family's experiences of traveling away from humanity were motivated by trying to escape the COVID virus. The author has a note about her own experiences. There are so many variations of what people did during that time. Why not have a fantasy story about escaping to a magical valley where mangoes grow wild?
There are not a lot of middle grade books that merge horses with fantasy elements. Lasky's Horses of the Dawn and George's The Rose Legacy series, as well as DasGupta's The Chaos Monster (Secrets of the Sky) do. This is a great portal fantasy for readers who want to travel into a magical world where the biggest concern is horses, and not the fact that everyone has worn out their shoes!
This was slightly odd, and I wasn't surprised to find that the author lives in Australia. My readers who enjoy horse books seem to want more realistic tales, but I'll see what they think about this title.
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