Impossible Creatures

Katherine Rundell's Impossible Creatures is a big, beautiful fantasy for 10 year olds about a hidden world where every creature from myth is still alive.

What happens

Christopher Forrester has always had a strange gift. Animals come to him. Squirrels climb his legs, swans follow him out of the ponds, and a fox once tried to chew through his bedroom window latch. His dad hates it. So when Christopher is sent to stay with the grandfather he hardly knows, in the Scottish Highlands, there's one rule. Never go to the top of the hill. (You can guess how long that lasts.)

Far away, in a secret cluster of islands called the Archipelago, Mal Arvorian can fly. She has a coat that lifts her whenever the wind blows. Tucked inside her jumper is Gelifen, her baby griffin. She's also been finding creatures lying dead in the forest, and the soil turning grey.

The chapters swap between the two of them, and you just know they're going to meet. Before any of that, the book opens with a guide to the creatures, and it's a joy. There's a chimaera whose three heads can never agree what to do. There's a poisonous shrew that counts laughing and interpretive dance as provocation. Who wouldn't want to read the rest after that?

Rundell's writing is gorgeous without ever getting heavy. Grandpa Frank's seagulls leave "weaponised" poo on the dashboard. Mal eats clouds. Christopher's first sight of a unicorn will have your reader holding their breath.

Heads up, though. A hired killer comes after Mal very early on. He bursts into her kitchen and stabs her great-aunt Leonor, and you see the blood spread across her apron. Leonor still gets up and throws an axe at him, and then there's a shriek and silence. It's short, but it's shocking.

If your reader finds it hard when a loved grown-up gets hurt, you might want to read that part together. Both Mal's and Christopher's mothers have died too, before the story starts.

If your reader is ready for real danger, though, it's a treat. It's funny, it's full of wonder and it takes children seriously.

What to read next

For a child who loves Christopher's way with animals, The Explorer, also by Katherine Rundell, would be a lovely next read. Four children survive a plane crash in the Amazon and find themselves lost in the jungle on their own.