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Impossible Creatures

Katherine Rundell

$18.99

Paperback

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English
Bloomsbury Childrens Books
12 September 2023

ABBEY'S BOOKSELLER PICK ----- When Christopher is sent to his unknown Scottish grandfather, he is unimpressed. That is, until he climbs a forbidden hill and a horde of impossible creatures appear. He’s found the entrance to the Archipelago, where all the animals of myth and peril are safe, and where Mal, a flying girl, lives. But the realm’s magic is dimming and the special beasts are beginning to sicken and die. When Christopher crosses into the Archipelago, the two join together to fight the evil force that threatens the world - and what adventures await them both! Absolutely marvellous! Ages 10-13 Lindy


'There was Tolkien, there is Pullman and now there is Katherine Rundell. Wondrous invention, marvellous writing.' – Michael Morpurgo

‘Rundell’s first foray into fantasy is both a deft, rich homage to the greats of children’s literature and an absorbing, profoundly poignant quest story for those aged 9+ – quite possibly her best yet’ – The Guardian

'A book stuffed full of fantastical, magical delight, and a world of richly imagined wonder' – Cressida Cowell
* WATERSTONES BOOK OF THE YEAR WINNER
* BOOKS ARE MY BAG READERS' AWARD WINNER
* FOYLES CHILDREN'S BOOK OF THE YEAR
* SHORTLISTED FOR AMAZON KIDS AND YA BOOK OF THE YEAR
* THE TIMES CHILDREN'S BOOK OF THE WEEK
* THE INDEPENDENT CHILDREN'S BOOK OF THE WEEK
* THE DAILY TELEGRAPH CHILDREN'S BOOK OF THE WEEK
* SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER IN SEPTEMBER 2023

There’s a place where all the wildest stories began … From Katherine Rundell, winner of the Costa Children’s Book Award, the Blue Peter Book Award and the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize comes the first novel in a landmark trilogy for 9+ fans of His Dark Materials

Christopher is stunned when he discovers a passage to the Archipelago: a cluster of magical islands where all the creatures of myth still live and breed and thrive in their thousands. There he meets Mal: a girl from the islands, who is in possession of a flying coat and a baby griffin, and who is being pursued by a killer. Together they embark on an urgent quest to discover why the creatures are suddenly perishing, voyaging across the wild splendour of the Archipelago, where sphinxes hold secrets and centaurs do murder, in a bid to save both the islands and the world beyond them from a rising evil – before it's too late.

'A marvellous, imaginative fantasy told with great style and sparkle – a book to race through in a day and keep for a lifetime' – Jacqueline Wilson

'The world of this new book is so intriguing and so well put together that I couldn’t resist it. Readers who already know her books will seize this with delight, and new readers will love it and demand all her others at once' - Philip Pullman

‘A masterpiece to rival Tolkien and Pullman’ – The Daily Telegraph

'Fantastically exuberant, wildly imaginative, impossibly brilliant. Rundell’s best, which is something to be marvelled at' – Kiran Millwood Hargrave

‘An exhilarating, many-hued adventure, heartfelt and sometimes heartbreaking’ – Frances Hardinge

'Between the covers of Impossible Creatures is a world as enchanting, as perilous, as richly imagined as Narnia or Middle Earth' – Frank Cottrell-Boyce

‘Rundell's book packs a punch with imagination and creativity in its purest form. She has created a story with potential to be adored by fantasy lovers for years to come’ – The Independent

'With a delightful cast of characters, breathless adventure, and an abundance of myth and magic, Impossible Creatures offers the very best of fantasy' – Aisha Bushby

'A fierce, fantastic, wild-hearted adventure that roars and bristles with imagination. I devoured it like a hungry dragon' – Sam Sedgman

'A rare and remarkable feat of glittering imagination from a truly masterful storyteller' – Catherine Doyle

'The action is gripping. Every sentence sparkles. You can feel the flutter of griffin feathers and the menace of strange poisonous shrews. Magnificent’ – The Times

‘Surely the next classic’ – The I

'My Book of the Year' – Lauren St. John
By:  
Imprint:   Bloomsbury Childrens Books
Country of Publication:   United Kingdom
Dimensions:   Height: 198mm,  Width: 129mm, 
ISBN:   9781408897409
ISBN 10:   1408897407
Series:   Impossible Creatures
Pages:   304
Publication Date:  
Recommended Age:   From 9 to 12 years
Audience:   Children/juvenile ,  English as a second language
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active

Katherine Rundell is a bestselling author whose novels for children include Rooftoppers, The Wolf Wilder, The Explorer and The Good Thieves. She has won the Costa Children’s Book Award, the Blue Peter Book Award and the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize, amongst many others. She was a 2021 World Book Day author and has also published two picture books for children and three non-fiction books for adults, including Super-Infinite: The Transformations of John Donne, winner of the 2022 Baillie Gifford Prize, and The Golden Mole and Other Living Treasure, shortlisted for the 2022 Waterstones Book of the Year. Her books have sold millions of copies worldwide. Katherine spent her childhood in Africa and Europe before taking her degree at the University of Oxford and becoming a Fellow of All Souls College. As well as writing, she studies Renaissance literature and occasionally goes climbing on the rooftops late at night.

Reviews for Impossible Creatures

ABBEY'S BOOKSELLER PICK ----- When Christopher is sent to his unknown Scottish grandfather, he is unimpressed. That is, until he climbs a forbidden hill and a horde of impossible creatures appear. He’s found the entrance to the Archipelago, where all the animals of myth and peril are safe, and where Mal, a flying girl, lives. But the realm’s magic is dimming and the special beasts are beginning to sicken and die. When Christopher crosses into the Archipelago, the two join together to fight the evil force that threatens the world - and what adventures await them both! Absolutely marvellous! Ages 10-13 Lindy






There was Tolkien, there is Pullman and now there is Katherine Rundell. Wondrous invention, marvellous writing. This book is her best yet, and that's saying something. Just riveting, quite extraordinary. * Michael Morpurgo * A marvellous imaginative fantasy told with great style and sparkle - a book to race through in a day and keep for a lifetime. * Jacqueline Wilson * Katherine Rundell is a phenomenon. She not only understands what fantasy is for and why children (and the rest of us) need it, but she crafts original and brilliant books that delight readers of all ages and kinds, while stretching our minds and filling our hearts. * Neil Gaiman * Katherine Rundell is a prodigiously gifted storyteller and IMPOSSIBLE CREATURES is wildly good. Spectacularly inventive, it is both a thrilling and page-turning epic and a clarion call to young readers to use the special gifts of childhood- love, courage, imagination and open-heartedness - to fight to save precious creatures of all kinds before they vanish before our eyes. My Book of the Year. * Lauren St. John * Fantastically exuberant, wildly imaginative, impossibly brilliant. Rundell’s best, which is something to be marvelled at. It made me want to yell, or laugh, or bite something. * Kiran Millwood Hargrave * A rare and remarkable feat of glittering imagination from a truly masterful storyteller. * Catherine Doyle * A fierce, fantastic, wild-hearted adventure that roars and bristles with imagination. I devoured it like a hungry dragon * Sam Sedgman * One of our most talented writers for children * Observer * A menagerie of delights. So packed with magic you'll want to take notes. Impossible Creatures is a world you'll want to move into. * Patrick Ness * Between the covers of Impossible Creatures is a world as enchanting, as perilous, as richly imagined as Narnia or Middle Earth. * Frank Cottrell-Boyce * Flickers with a rare and fierce beauty - unputdownable. * Abi Elphinstone *


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