September 2015
The Wordsmith
by Patricia Forde
A beautiful and gripping dystopian story of how words make us who we are. For readers aged ten and over. On the death of her master, Letta is suddenly promoted from apprentice to wordsmith, charged with collecting and archiving words in post-apocalyptic, neo-medieval Ark. When she uncovers a sinister plan to suppress language and rob the people of Ark of the power of speech, she realises that she has to save not only words but the culture itself. After global warming came The Melting. Then came Ark. John Noa, the dictator of Ark, wants to destroy language, music and art. People are only allowed use a list of 500 words. ‘Hope’, ‘love’ and ‘freedom’ are among the forbidden words. Letta loves her job as the Wordsmith's apprentice, giving out special words to people who need them. But when her master disappears, Letta realises she needs to join the resistance, to stop Noa silencing what is left of the human race. In The Wordsmith, Letta joins the Desecrators, rebels who live outside the walls of Ark and fight the regime with the best methods they have: music, art, speech and hope. Together they manage to defeat Noa. See details of the sequel Mother Tongue here.
