The Biggest Delight: 5 Questions for Katherine Rundell
Everything you’ve heard about this book is true. Think about your favorite magical creatures and myths as a kid — if you’ve ever dreamt it, Rundell has most likely written about it. Impossible Creatures is a magical ride through a world of wild wonders and irrepressible imagination. Read on for an exclusive 5 Questions Q&A with Rundell and find your next favorite book — no matter how old you are.
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Impossible Creatures (B&N Exclusive Edition) (2024 B&N Children's Book of the Year)
Impossible Creatures (B&N Exclusive Edition) (2024 B&N Children's Book of the Year)
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Hardcover
$16.99
$19.99
Impossible Creatures brings all readers’ favorite mythical beasts into one deeply moving portal fantasy. It’s an unparalleled adventure through a magical realm where even a couple of kids can save the world and all those they hold dear.
Impossible Creatures brings all readers’ favorite mythical beasts into one deeply moving portal fantasy. It’s an unparalleled adventure through a magical realm where even a couple of kids can save the world and all those they hold dear.
Can you tell us about your process for bringing these creatures to life?
It’s been the biggest delight – I spent more than a hundred hours in libraries, reading about the creatures, in modern encyclopaedias and Latin medieval manuscripts, and in dozens of monographs about unicorns and dragons and myth. But of course research can only take you so far – when the time came to write, I would close my eyes and ask: what would it really be like? I wanted children to feel it was real – to smell of unicorn’s breath on your face, the scratch of a dragon’s claw, the smooth feathers of a griffin’s wings.
How does this book connect with your new nonfiction title Vanishing Creatures?
I think in many way they’re sister-projects: one, Vanishing Treasures, is a book for adults about the real-life wonders of the world. Impossible Creatures is also, in part, about the idea of imperilled wonders, and the ferocity with which we need to fight to retain them – but most of all, it’s an adventure.
What is the best part of writing for young readers?
I think it’s the fact that children read with their whole heart and mind – they read so hungrily, with every bit of themselves. So a book that a child loves becomes part of them – when you read as a kid, it gets into your bones and blood and dreams. I also love going to meet my readers: adult readers, in my experience, don’t make you papier-mâché models of your characters, or bracelets with your name on them.
Can you talk about writing friendships and found family?
I loved writing the relationship between Christopher and Mal. I think sometimes, as a culture, we don’t acknowledge the deep reality of a child’s friendship and a child’s love: the intensity and integrity of which they’re capable. So I wanted to write a book that would salute the powerful friendships of childhood.
Do you have a favorite magical creature?
It’s a very tough call! – but I think I perhaps love the ratatoskas best. They’re green horned squirrel-like creatures (stolen from Norse myth) who spread news and rumours around the island. They have their own mode of speech, and the capacity to create a fair amount of havoc. But I also adored writing Jacques, the tiny jaculus dragon who can perch on the top joint of your thumb, and who has the manners of a furious academic.