The Horse Dreamer

Lavishly illustrated in a style slightly reminiscent of Charlie Mackesy, this story tells how three sisters living in the countryside attempt to keep their family going, as their newly widowed Mum is often deep in depression, needing her medicine to stay on an even keel. The middle sister, Merryn, having checked that the wrens and their nest have survived after a storm, makes a horse shape out of sticks and the debris left behind, but then falls over and bumps her head. She wakes to find that her stick horse has come to life, still apparently made of vines, twigs and leaves, but solid, and definitely friendly. She names it Sorrel, and it always seems to be there when she needs it, even rescuing her from the sea.

The family dynamic is well described: older sister Lowen has a brief period of rebellion, wearing too much make-up and getting involved with an unsavoury crowd, but eventually she sees sense. 8 year-old sister Tressa is much younger than the other two, and needs a lot of looking after, so they try to share this responsibility. The girls are anxious that no-one at school discovers how ill Mum is, as it’s not right that fourteen- year- old Lowen is responsible for the family, and Merryn almost tells a favourite teacher that they need help, but she doesn’t.

Their friendly neighbour, a farmer called Peter, had known Dad, and he can’t bear to part with his daughter’s horse, although she has gone away and lost interest, so when the horse becomes Merryn’s Christmas present, and Mum seems to be getting better, that is the end of the story- was Sorrel real, or a figment of Merryn’s imagination when she needed support?

The author, Holly Surplice, lives with her three daughters in the Outer Hebrides, and spends a lot of time sketching, so this is a very beautiful book, illustrated and printed in navy blue, and it will certainly be attractive to readers who love horses. She may have used her own farming background and the experiences of her own daughters to inspire this story: Merryn has a particular closeness to nature and, as her teachers have noted, an active imagination and a gift for storytelling…