With her recent book for middle grade readers, Impossible Creatures, Katherine Rundell tells a tale of possibility. While the book soars on the fringes of imagination, with its talk of griffins, berserkers, unicorns, and sphinxes, it recounts the power of courage, determination, and a fierce passion for protection. It tells the story of two young people, Malum Arvorian and Christopher Forrester who have an allegiance to wild and living things.
Rundell is herself a magician when it comes to creating characters and putting them into situations where their best selves emerge. For example, although Mal’s Aunt Leonor is a sullen and gruff character, she puts her patience and love into baking.
Small, stubborn Mal was flying by age nine, soaring above the Archipelago. Prickly around people, Mal considers the world to be chaotic and unpredictable, but the sky is her freedom. From her vantage point, she serves as a guardian of the Archipelago’s bestiary. Possessing a ferocious and careful love for the Archipelago, she “walks with the look of a moving battleground” (277).
Christopher, too, is a guardian. For some inexplicable reason, animals are drawn to him. He discovers the reason when he travels to the Scottish Highlands to stay with his maternal grandfather, Frank Aureate. Grandfather tells Christopher of a magic place, “where all the creatures of myth still live and thrive” (46). As it turns out, Christopher is one of the keys to this magic place.
Rundell proposes that “the words with the greatest power to create both havoc and marvels are these: ‘I need your help.’” When Mal implores Christopher to return to the Archipelago with her so that she isn’t ruthlessly murdered, Christopher agrees to assist. Although he has no idea what he is agreeing to, he accepts on blind faith, setting into motion a daring adventure with life-or-death consequences.
Along the way, the pair learn some truths about truth, friendship, and secrets as “the most powerful kind of treasure” (143). Warren tells Mal and Christopher that “the truth is always journeying, always ready to be summoned” (88). A spark of understanding ignites between the two young people who realize that friendship both toughens and nourishes. “It’s a defibrillator for the heart” (89).
Other wisdom comes from Fidens Nighthand, a Berserker, who tells them that “love has fear baked into it” (138). From the sphinxes, readers learn to “stop expecting life to get easier. It never does; that is not where its goodness lies” (172-173). And from Irian, a research scientist, we realize that “some knowledges mean exile,” and that “much of who we are is what we know and what we’ve seen” (195).
Finally, Mal shares her knowledge about the terrible brutality and chaos of the world. However, she says, “greater than the world’s chaos are its miracles” (314). To reach that level of beauty, we have to keep beating back against the horror. “That is why great power must never reside in only one person. It must be shared. It must be spread among as many good women and men as can be found; not because it is kind or polite or fair, but because it is the only way to beat back against horror” (322), whether in the form of greed, oppression, or thirst for power.
- Donna