Silver Brook: Yumna and the golden horse by Yassmin Abdel-Magied
Sudanese born and raised in Australia, author and activist Yassmin Abdel-Magied has published five books and has an abiding interest in racism. Two novels You must be Layla and Listen Layla appeal to a similar age-group to Silverbrook:Yumna and the golden horse with Listen Layla being longlisted for Book of the Year by the Children's Book Council of Australia.
Thirteen year old Yumna is the heroine of Silverbrook: Yumna and the golden horse. She lives in a quiet English town where nothing happens. Her mother has (mysteriously) gone and Yumna lives with her sad father. Yumna has two friends - the "athletic and beautiful Sadeeqa" and the "sassy and charming Nafisa". By contrast, Yumna is described as "small and stocky"...spending "most of her time buried in books and avoiding conversations with strangers". Yumna's friends disappear into the forest without her and when she follows them she discovers that they have magic skills including dealing with the elements and transforming into a mythical beast (golden horse). In addition Sadeeqa's brother Kareem goes missing and a couple called the Maidstones appear in the village seeming to Yumna to be too nice and too helpful to be true. Yumna feels left out and inadequate by comparison. However Yumna's greatest wish is to become a detective and she discovers her own skills as the story progresses.
Silverbrook: Yumna and the golden horse is an interesting book because it depicts life for a thirteen year old girl in a Muslim home, living in a small country town as a new immigrant. Readers see the daily prayer rituals of the father and how the day is punctuated by prayer times. Yumna and her friends wear abayas and sprinklings of common Arabic statements, exclamations, endearments and other speech fragments are scattered throughout the text. Yumna frequently exclaims to herself in Arabic and when in the deepest trouble she prays to Allah for guidance...and receives her answer. The jinn of Arabian and Muslim mythology appear in animal form to possess one of the young people.
Mystery, magic, community, environmental and commercial interests collide in the small town and there is plenty of danger and possibility of destruction. How will it be resolved? Who will understand the whole picture in time with secrets unravelling left, right and centre? Will anybody be able to read the problem and pull the community together? Spoiler - it will not be the adults who save the town...
Yumna and the golden horse is the first in the middle-grade fantasy adventure Silverbrook series. Thus, at the end, Yumna has many questions but the driving question will be the subject of subsequent books. Those who enjoy empowering middle grade fantasy such as Amari and the night brothers by B.B. Alston and the Wings of fire series by Tui Sutherland would enjoy Silverbrook: Yumna and the golden horse as these books offer empowerment and diversity along with magical animal and fantasy elements.
Themes: Activism, Muslim home and prayer life, Community, Friendship, Muslim and Arabic mythology.
Wendy Jeffrey