NEVERFEAR
Impossible Creatures Series, Book 3BY KATHERINE RUNDELL
ART BY ASHLEY MACKENZIE | PUBLICATION: SEPTEMBER 1, 2026
PUFFIN CANADA | GENRE: CHILDREN'S MIDDLE GRADE BOOKS
RATING: ★★★★★
"This sequel is everything I hoped for — great adventure, new challenges, enduring loyalty, and wonder. "
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It’s the Midsummer Feast on the islet of Glimt, and on this magical moonlit evening, the word on everyone’s lips is bandits. Reports of masked men wreaking havoc are spreading throughout the Archipelago.
Christopher and Anya have faced danger before; they think they are prepared for this threat—until they are ambushed and someone very close to them is kidnapped.
Their frantic quest to pay the ransom will take them on a wild journey across Glimouria. Together they must face giants, duel with pirates, and race against deadly karkadanns.
But just when they think they might succeed, there will come the most Herculean task of all . . . -PRH
Christopher and Anya have faced danger before; they think they are prepared for this threat—until they are ambushed and someone very close to them is kidnapped.
Their frantic quest to pay the ransom will take them on a wild journey across Glimouria. Together they must face giants, duel with pirates, and race against deadly karkadanns.
But just when they think they might succeed, there will come the most Herculean task of all . . . -PRH
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There was a moment, while reading NEVERFEAR, when I realized something about myself as a reader: I still read with wonder. I still fall into stories the way I did when I was young — with curiosity, with awe, with that feeling of stepping into a world that welcomes me back like an old friend. Meeting Christopher, Anya, Nighthand, Irian, and Teren again felt less like picking up a sequel and more like returning to people I’ve missed.
This sequel is everything I hoped for — great adventure, new challenges, enduring loyalty, and wonder. The challenges asked so much from our characters, but they stood to the task. Every single one of them was tested and passed with flying colors. Their loyalty, love, and morals were pushed to the edge, and where there was anger, hurt, or guilt, there was also love — unconditional love and profound understanding.
One of the most beautiful truths in Neverfear is the way Nighthand rebuilds his boat after every storm, every loss, every hardship — always carrying a piece of the old into the new, and always naming it Neverfear. It’s not just a name. It’s an act of courage. A promise to himself that fear will not define him, and that renewal is always possible. Naming it Neverfear is continuity — not because the boat stays the same, but because he stays true.
This idea echoes through the entire Archipelago. The islands are home to everyone — the strange, the oddball, the different, the ones who don’t fit neatly anywhere else. The Archipelago welcomes them not by asking them to change, but by giving them space to grow. It’s a world that says: you belong here, exactly as you are.
And just like Nighthand’s boat, the people of the Archipelago rebuild themselves after hardship. They carry their past forward, but they don’t let it trap them. They learn, they change, they discover new strengths. Their renewal is quiet, brave, and deeply human.
The threat to the Archipelago is terrifying — deathly terrifying — and I found myself anxious for everyone… and yet hopeful. If there’s one great takeaway, it’s that hope can be pulled from different places, different directions. It’s there, even in the darkest corners, waiting to be found.
This book is a whole lesson on its own. I would recommend it to any child or adult alike. It reminds us that wonder is not something we outgrow. Curiosity is not something we lose. Renewal is not something reserved for stories. And belonging is not something we have to earn.
Stories like this remind me that I never lost that part of myself — I just had to remember it.
Impossible Creatures, Book 1
This sequel is everything I hoped for — great adventure, new challenges, enduring loyalty, and wonder. The challenges asked so much from our characters, but they stood to the task. Every single one of them was tested and passed with flying colors. Their loyalty, love, and morals were pushed to the edge, and where there was anger, hurt, or guilt, there was also love — unconditional love and profound understanding.
One of the most beautiful truths in Neverfear is the way Nighthand rebuilds his boat after every storm, every loss, every hardship — always carrying a piece of the old into the new, and always naming it Neverfear. It’s not just a name. It’s an act of courage. A promise to himself that fear will not define him, and that renewal is always possible. Naming it Neverfear is continuity — not because the boat stays the same, but because he stays true.
This idea echoes through the entire Archipelago. The islands are home to everyone — the strange, the oddball, the different, the ones who don’t fit neatly anywhere else. The Archipelago welcomes them not by asking them to change, but by giving them space to grow. It’s a world that says: you belong here, exactly as you are.
And just like Nighthand’s boat, the people of the Archipelago rebuild themselves after hardship. They carry their past forward, but they don’t let it trap them. They learn, they change, they discover new strengths. Their renewal is quiet, brave, and deeply human.
The threat to the Archipelago is terrifying — deathly terrifying — and I found myself anxious for everyone… and yet hopeful. If there’s one great takeaway, it’s that hope can be pulled from different places, different directions. It’s there, even in the darkest corners, waiting to be found.
This book is a whole lesson on its own. I would recommend it to any child or adult alike. It reminds us that wonder is not something we outgrow. Curiosity is not something we lose. Renewal is not something reserved for stories. And belonging is not something we have to earn.
Stories like this remind me that I never lost that part of myself — I just had to remember it.
Impossible Creatures, Book 1
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About the Author:
KATHERINE RUNDELL is the internationally bestselling author of Impossible Creatures. Her other books for children include Rooftoppers, Cartwheeling in Thunderstorms, The Wolf Wilder, The Explorer, and The Good Thieves. She grew up in Zimbabwe, Brussels, and London, and is currently a Fellow of St. Catherine’s College, Oxford. For adult readers, Rundell has written Vanishing Treasures: A Bestiary of Extraordinary Endangered Creatures and Super-Infinite: The Transformations of John Donne, which won the Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction. She was the recipient of the British Book Award for Book of the Year and Author of the Year.
Photo by Nina Subin
Photo by Nina Subin
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