Katherine Rundell's "Impossible Creatures: The Neverfear" teachers' review

Brief description and distinctive features

Her own books are a wonderful example of the power that reading about joy, and the toughness of struggle, can give to our students. This Impossible Creatures series now stands at book three in a projected five book cycle and has all the hallmarks of a classic, and is now firmly established in the tradition of Tolkien’s The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings and Phillip Pullman’s His Dark Materials.

Brief description of Impossible Creatures: The Nevefear

Katherine Rundell’s third book in the Impossible Creatures series opens with the birth of a unicorn and a revelation that Christopher’s empathic and powerful connection with animals is now intensifying. This will have extraordinary implications for the climactic final encounter of the novel. Readers are returned to the Archipelago for the Midsummer celebrations on the islet of Glimt with many of the characters from previous books playing a leading role in this new and perilous quest. Fidens Nighthand, Berserker (and Protector of Teren, the child Immortal whose whereabouts at the start of the book are still secret) inherited the palace of Glimt. With the help and support of the scholar, Irian, he has transformed the Palace and its inlets and islands into a haven of safety and learning. Christopher and Anya are soon caught up in an attempt to rescue Irian from the terrifying bandits, with the ouroboros brand on their wrists, who capture her and leave death and destruction behind them.  The children have the help and support of Radwin, the ratatoska, and Jacques, the tiny dragon as they sail on Nighthand’s boat, The Neverfear, to complete the three impossible tasks the villain Morax demands to release Irian. Morax is the malevolent controller of the Tiger and the Snake and behind all the devastation created by the bandits. His right-hand lieutenant is Carla Venasque, (a former colleague who knows and hates Nighthand) and his aim is to gain control of the child Immortal. The growth of both Christopher, as a strategist and powerful communicator with diverse creatures, and of Anya, as a warrior, have powerful implications as the final climatic confrontations with Morax and his minions plays out. 

Distinctive features of Impossible Creatures: The Nevefear

• Rundell’s splendid storytelling continues in Book 3 with a return to the Archipelago and its familiar creatures but amid a terrifying outbreak of violence by bandits 
• Quest and children with agency are features of Rundell stories and this time protagonists Christopher and Anya, along with Ratwin the ratatoska and Jacques the tiny dragon, must go on a quest to find three impossible items to help rescue Irian from the villainous Morax who controls his bandits with a snake  
• Sailing is the major transport form of the Archipelago and Rundell vividly captures the journeys of The Neverfear 
• As always Rundell delivers precise prose with humour, terror, struggle and delight in equal measure as her cliffhangers entice the reader through perilous times 
• The author also employs banter, jokes and riddles as her characters and creatures invite the reader into their complicated lives 
• Rundell has always been fascinated with the food her characters and creatures find, prepare and eat (remember she ate a tarantula when researching her novel The Explorer) and many readers will especially enjoy the descriptions of Fidens Nighthand’s Berserker cooking! 
• Rundell, through her characters and descriptions, confronts some dangerous and tortuous experiences and situations with fearlessness and yet inspires the reader with hope for a way out: the only path for readers is to continue reading and to resist the need to peak ahead for solace or reassurance 
• Cliffhangers following cliffhangers and the reader is bound to the narrative course with one of the best writers around delivering a profoundly satisfying conclusion.

Note: Book Four in the Impossible Creatures series will be published in September next year and Disney films are bringing the series to the cinema. 

Ways to use Impossible Creatures: The Neverfear in the classroom

Previous reviews of Impossible Creatures Book One (posted February 23, 2024) and Impossible Creatures: The Poisoned King Book Two  (posted October 19, 2025) on Five Senses website will assist any readers who want to know what happened in those books or who want to refresh their memories of the books. Both reviews contain a range of  ideas and activities that could be modified to suit Book Three.

Student created units of work 

Asking a Year 6 or 7 class to create units of work for another class based on specific texts can give them a unique opportunity to produce quality work which can be shared, published and displayed and used by other students and teachers in a school. As a motivational tool it can work wonders. 

Many years ago, a group of students at Lisarow High on the Central Coast produced some wonderful units of work on a novel they read in class. The variety of tasks and examples included  

• a debate 
• letter writing and diary entries for the novel characters 
• advertisements for a particular setting  
• writing a sequel 
• writing poems that reflected the attributes and ideas of the main characters 
• a compulsory quick quiz 
• an interview with the heroes and villains  
• a wanted poster 
• designs for major structures in the story  
• a new blurb for the book
• a poster advertising the novel and reasons why it should be read 
• a character map and 
• a subject log in which they reflected on what worked and what didn't work, on what they learnt and what they enjoyed and what they would change if they created another unit of work. 

Students can be very enthusiastic when given such agency in the classroom and know they have an audience other than their teacher and my experience was that they were motivated to get reading and adopt the stature of an expert and design their own units of work.

A good time  for such a unit of work to be created is towards the end of the year  when the pattern  and purpose of English units  of work are clear to students and they are ready for a challenge. Such a unit can use any texts as the focus. For the students  it can really produce quality work  which  can be the basis for visiting another classroom, either another  Year 7 class or for a Primary feeder school as an introduction to their high school. Rundell’s fantasy saga is a perfect place to start with wide reading availble in the three novels produced so far and the tanterlising prospect of students creating  short sequels to the novels they will enjoy so  much.

Creating units of work on all or one of Rundell’s Impossible Creatures books 

Before students began, discuss the guidelines below and the outcomes. i.e. what they want the other student to be able to do or to demonstrate by the end of the unit. 

Of course, time could be set aside to just read through the three books and then groups could select the one that they will concentrate on when designing a unit of work. After the admittedly involved initial organisation, the role of the teacher is to guide and consult with groups and help collect resources, organise an opportunity for students to present their unit to other classes and consider ways to publish the students work in the school and beyond. Finally, the teacher can appreciate the results of student designed units of work and all the skills learnt and employed to develop them.

Characters and creatures 

Rundell is a master of character and creatures. The two main characters, Christopher and Anya are worthy of an extensive examination as students chart their qualities and attributes, acknowledge (as they so often do) their shortcomings, fears and difficulties as human beings and the growth they make as human beings in the book. 

Expand and enlarge the Bestiary

The beautifully illustrated Guardian’s Bestiary from Impossible Creatures, which appears in all three books, could be expanded by students, as they extend the description and illustration of the new creatures and revisit the familiar ones, based on their knowledge of the books.  The collection of animals now includes a bonnacon, a leshoki and a behemoth, as well as the many of the other creatures readers would know from previous books, such as the gagana, the sphinxes and unicorn and the nereids. The leshoki, which plays a pivotal part in Book Three is especially interesting, as nobody really knows what they look like in their native state! Students could publish their descriptions and illustrations and email Bloomsbury publishers at AU@bloomsbury.com to share their interpretations and seek a response from Katherine Rundell. 

Relevant details in relation to the new NSW English K-10 syllabus

Stage 3 references

Text requirements: novel, literature from other countries 

Concepts could include Narrative • Characterisation • Genre.

Relevant NSW English K-6 Syllabus content

Understanding and responding to literature

A student analyses representations of ideas in literature through narrative, character, imagery, symbol and connotation, and adapts these representations when creating texts EN3-UARL-01

A student analyses representations of ideas in literature through genre and theme that reflect perspective and context, argument and authority, and adapts these representations when creating texts EN3-UARL-02

Narrative

• Describe how narrative conventions engage the reader through models of behaviour, and apply narrative conventions when creating texts
• Recognise that narratives reflect both personal and common lived experiences and offer models of behaviour, which may be rejected or accepted
• Describe how patterns in narratives set up expectations and notice when those patterns are subverted

Characterisation

• Analyse attributes of character and use similar attributes when creating texts
• Recognise how character archetypes and stereotypes are represented in literature
• Analyse how engagement with characters within and between texts invites enjoyment of literature
• Identify the ways different elements of a text contribute to character development and adapt these elements when creating texts

Genre

• Explain how genre can be recognised by established codes and conventions that govern content and construction of literature, and apply this knowledge when creating texts
• Examine and experiment with elements in literature that do not follow the form and function of a single genre

Theme

• Identify core social, personal and moral messages within and between texts
• Identify and describe messages common to lived experiences that recur in literature and use these representations when creating texts

Perspective and context

• Identify how perspective is made evident through authorial choices
• Explore how perspective is influenced by personal, social and cultural contexts
• Reflect on and explain how personal, social and cultural context is expressed in own texts

Reading comprehension

A student fluently reads and comprehends texts for wide purposes, analysing text structures and language, and by monitoring comprehension EN3-RECOM-01

Reading for interest and wide purposes

• Select, compare and reflect on texts read for personal interest
• Reflect on reading experiences and identify texts and language features that are enjoyable
• Select texts from print or digital sources to gather and organise research on a topic
• Use criteria to determine the accuracy and reliability of sourced information
• Bring subject vocabulary, technical vocabulary, background knowledge and conceptual knowledge to new reading tasks
• Use and compare different texts on similar themes or topics to synthesise ideas or information

Stage 4 references

Text requirements: Impossible creatures: The Neverfear is an illustrated novel (extended prose) text from a British author. It includes a range of cultural, social and gender perspectives. 

Concepts could include Genre • Intertextuality • Theme • Characterisation.

Relevant NSW English 7-10 Syllabus content

Reading, viewing and listening to texts

A student uses a range of personal, creative and critical strategies to read texts that are complex in their ideas and construction EN4-RVL-01

Reading, viewing and listening for meaning

• Explore the main ideas and thematic concerns posed by a text for meaning
• Engage with the ways texts contain layers of meaning, or multiple meanings
• Identify and understand that relevant prior knowledge and personal experience enables and enhances understanding when reading, viewing or listening to texts
• Explain personal responses to characters, situations and issues in texts, recognising the role of written, oral or visual language in influencing these personal responses

Understanding and responding to texts B

A student examines and explains how texts represent ideas, experiences and values EN4-URB-01

Theme

• Understand how repetition, patterning and language features used within a text communicate ideas about social, personal, ethical and philosophical issues and experiences, and demonstrate this understanding through written, spoken, visual and multimodal responses

Understanding and responding to texts C

A student identifies and explains ways of valuing texts and the connections between them EN4-URC-01

Genre 

• Understand how a genre addresses its purpose through patterns of textual elements, such as structure, choice of language, character archetypes and settings, and apply these patterns in own texts
• Analyse how texts can participate in larger, established patterns of narrative, purpose, theme and tone by exhibiting and challenging conventions, and experiment with conventions in own texts
• Explore particular genres to identify ways they may be adapted to different modes and media, or refreshed by combining with other genres, and experiment with these in own texts

Intertextuality 

• Analyse how texts can draw on elements of other texts to enrich meaning
• Understand how and why texts can be adapted, appropriated or transformed for different contexts, purposes and audiences, and experiment with adaptations, appropriations and transformations in own work

(English K-10 Syllabus 2022 © NSW Education Standards Authority for and on behalf of the Crown in right of the State of New South Wales, 2023)

Connecting texts: Wide reading of Rundell's novels

You could broaden the scope of the wide reading beyond the Impossible Creatures trio and include other Rundell books such as books as The Girl Savage, Rooftoppers, The Wolf Wilder, The Good Thieves and The Explorer. These books are realistic adventure stories and do not belong in the fantasy genre but are equally powerful tales of resilience and action as kids learn to gain some control and agency in challenging situations.