Impossible Creatures
By Katherine Rundell Published by Bloomsbury Ages 9 + Once upon a time, magical creatures such as unicorns, dragons, lavellans (the description of lavellans in the bestiary made me laugh out loud btw) and ratatoskas wandered the whole earth. Now they live in Archipelago, part of our world that is hidden by magic. But they are dying. Mal, from the Archipelago and Christopher, staying in Scotland, meet and unite both to save Mal from a murderer (!) and to find out what is happening to the creatures in the magical world... As an animal lover I felt an immediate connection to Christopher who attracts animals wherever he goes: 'his allegiance was to wild and living things.' and I loved this feature. The unicorns are beautifully described: 'like a cluster of ambulant stars' in varieties of silver and white. And the Sphinxes 'yellow-gold winged cats: cats that stood ten feet high' are so wonderfully proud and all-knowing. I like Jacques the tiny dragon. The chases a