British Book Awards (The Nibbies)
Impossible Creatures: 'There was Tolkien, there is Pullman and now there is Katherine Rundell' – Michael Morpurgo
A children's adventure about meeting imaginative creatures. Told with lyrical prose and humor, it celebrates friendship, courage, and creativity.
Work Information
Set across hidden islands filled with mythical creatures, the story follows two children confronting a world in peril. It blends scale, wonder, and intimacy.
A children's fantasy about adventure and friendship on hidden islands inhabited by mythical creatures. Its core is the widening power of imagination and the courage to face danger.
Book Information
- Publisher
- Bloomsbury Childrens Books
- Published
- 2023-09-14
- Pages
- 368 pages
- Language
- 英語
- Size
- 13.6 x 3 x 22 cm
- ISBN-13
- 9781408897416
- ISBN-10
- 1408897415
- Price
- 3424 JPY
- Category
- 洋書/Children's Books/Growing Up & Facts of Life/Friendship, Social Skills & School Life/Friendship
‘There was Tolkien, there is Pullman and now there is Katherine Rundell. Wondrous invention, marvellous writing.’ – Michael Morpurgo There’s a place where all the wildest stories began … The first novel in the award winning and globally best-selling Impossible Creatures series is the story of two children's epic adventure to transform the world. Read the stunning sequel to Impossible Creatures : book 2, The Poisoned King, is OUT NOW! Christopher is stunned when he discovers a Way-Between from our world 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. * 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 * BRITISH BOOK AWARDS CHILDREN’S FICTION BOOK OF THE YEAR * 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 ‘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 book stuffed full of fantastical, magical delight, and a world of richly imagined wonder’ – Cressida Cowell ‘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 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 ‘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
Katherine Rundell is a multi-million-bestselling author whose novels for children have won the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize, the Blue Peter Book Award and the Costa Children’s Book Award, among many others. Impossible Creatures was Waterstones Book of the Year 2023, and in 2024 Katherine was named the British Book Awards Author of the Year and Impossible Creatures won the Children’s Fiction Book of the Year. She is a Quondam Fellow of All Souls College and a Fellow of St Catherine’s College, Oxford, where she works on Renaissance literature. Her books for adults include Super-Infinite , winner of the Baillie Gifford Prize. Very occasionally she goes climbing across the rooftops of Oxford, late at night.
Reviews
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Engaging Middle Grade Fantasy Adventure
With a beautiful cover, fabulous map, lovely illustrated guide to the creatures and a brilliant story for ages nine to adult, Impossible Creatures really is the perfect gift for any family! The story is engaging and well written, the characters are relateable and I loved the way we met so very many magical creatures (including dragons) and visited so very many of the islands in the archipelago without it ever feeling too much or repetitive. Both Mal and Christopher were great characters and I totally loved Nighthand, Ratwin and Irian too! I also really appreciated the magical objects - the casapasaran and the glamry blade were a little remniscient of Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials. In all it's a great middle grade fantasy adventure with some complex themes and bittersweet moments and is sure to become a modern classic. I actually read this with my 9 year old and she also totally loved it too and we had fun chatting about it! She loved all the magical creatures as well as the idea of the immortal. An easy 4.5 stars from me and 4.75 from my daughter (rounded up to 5 for Amazon) and we definitely recommend it!
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Magic
A really good story, well written, with wonderful and magical settings. A classic.
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Enchanting
Mal and Christopher come from two very different worlds. Mal lives in the Archipelago which is a large group of islands that are the home of humans and a wide variety of fantastic beings. It’s like Hagrid’s menagerie from Harry Potter or Newt Scamander and his fantastic beasts but much, much bigger. Christopher is from the other world, the world the rest of us ordinary people live in. The two of them discover that something is amiss with the ancient Glimourie Tree whose magic has protected and nourished the Archipelago. Not only is the Archipelago in peril, but the entire world is too. What a delightful book! Written for the middle grade audience, it will enchant readers of all ages. With amazing creatures like dragons, ratatoskas and sphinxes inhabiting the pages, nonstop danger, and almost impossible situations to overcome, the heroes are a brave and determined bunch. It’s a wonderful fantastical story about facing your fears. It is a story about power and how it tends to corrupt; about greed and the ultimate power, love.
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Would make a terrific gift for a child, younger teen
2nd book and a wonderful fantastical story. I'm a big kid at heart and thoroughly enjoyed it. I'll pass it on to a school library as its hardcover.
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Great book, beautiful cover, excellent binding
What a beautiful book this is. The story is compelling and magical. Everyone should read it at least once. The book itself has beautiful illustrations, the binding is great, and for once it was sent with appropriate packaging. THANKFULLY, it WASN’T sent in the brown paper envelope packaging that Amazon uses. Proper protective packaging was used by the seller and such the book reached in impeccable condition. Thank you seller.