Impossible Creatures

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 fans aged 9+ 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, breed, and thrive in their thousands. There he meets Mal, a girl from the islands, who possesses 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.

Full of adventures, wonderful side characters, new lands and so many fantastic creatures. I heartily recommend it to readers of all ages – Rick Riordan

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