British author V. Peyton's Silo and the Rebel Raiders is the witty, rousing tale of a cunning boy adventurer, set in a carefully crafted, vividly described dystopian United Kingdom, hundreds of years after the Great Catastrophe that wiped out 21st-century technology.
Ten-year-old, web-footed Silo Zyco of the island marshes--outcast, possible orphan and "Thirteenth Chronicle Keeper for the Islanders"--is a "restless, ambitious" seer who dreams bigger than a bleak, predictable lifetime of eating eels... perhaps even "a glorious career in the Capital." When the Capital's visiting inspector discovers Silo's "rare and precious" psychic abilities, the boy is recruited by the government to help "see" the past's most coveted secrets, "the source of the Ancients' power." Silo quickly learns the "grim, fortresslike" Capital is a much darker place than he imagined, his fellow child seers (even the friendly ones) are suspicious, and the titular "rebel raiders" may be more friend than foe. His "glorious career" proves to be neither.
Some of the novel's funniest moments are found in its study of the Ancients: the misinterpretation of football as "goatball," a bewildering book called Making the Most of Your Microwave, or talk of the "Us of Ay" ("the land of the brave and the home of the free") as a faraway place that may just be the stuff of legends. With vivacious, larger-than-life characters and a rollicking pace, Silo is a wonderfully entertaining blend of classic orphan tale, satire, heroic quest and fantasy. --Kyla Paterno, former children's & YA book buyer