Katherine Rundell
Katherine Rundell spent her childhood in Africa and Europe. After completing a degree in English and a doctorate on John Donne, she is now a full-time writer and a Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford, where she studies Renaissance literature and climbs old buildings at night. Katherine is the bestselling author of The Wolf Wilder and Rooftoppers, which won the Waterstones Children's Book Prize and the Blue Peter Book Award and was shortlisted for many others. In 2017 Katherine won the Costa Children's Book Award for The Explorer. She has also been selected as one of the Aarhus39 - 39 of the leading children's writers from across Europe - and one of the Hay30 'writers and thinkers'.
Books
Impossible Creatures
Author: Katherine Rundell Illustrator: Tomislav Tomić
Publisher: Bloomsbury Children’s Books
Interest age: 9+
Reading age: 8+
Katherine Rundell has created an incredibly real-feeling magical world and story to rival classics like Narnia, with writing that sweeps you up and main characters who are simultaneously humanly flawed yet inherently pure and good.
Into the Jungle: Stories for Mowgli
Author: Katherine Rundell
Illustrator: Kristjana S Williams
Publisher: Macmillan Children’s Books
Interest age: 7-10
Reading age: 7+
Inspired by Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book, this splendid collection of five short stories focuses on a variety of characters from the original tale. Full of stylish illustrations and a hardback cover, it would make a stunning gift book.
One Christmas Wish
Author: Katherine Rundell Illustrator: Emily Sutton
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Interest age: 6-9
Reading age: 7+
One Christmas Wish has the right amount of charm and mischief to delight young readers, and Emily Sutton’s beautiful illustrations evoke the Christmases we dream of: cosy, colourful and magical.
Rooftoppers
Author: Katherine Rundell
Publisher: Faber and Faber
Interest age: 9+
Reading age: 11+
Following an elusive cello melody over the rooftops of Paris, Sophie is determined to find her long lost mother, before it is too late.
The Girl Savage
Author: Katherine Rundell
Publisher: Faber Children's Books
Interest age: 12+
Reading age: 10+
When Wilhelmina Silver's home is sold, she is torn from her best friend, her adopted monkey and her pet horse, and banished to an inhospitable boarding school in England.
The Good Thieves
Author: Katherine Rundell
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Interest age: 9-11
Reading age: 9+
If you try to steal back something that has been taken from your family by trickery, is that a crime or is it justice? A thrilling adventure, set in 1920s New York, rich in period detail and tensely dramatic moments.
The Wolf Wilder
Author: Katherine Rundell
Publisher: Bloomsbury
When the murderous hostility of the Russian Army threatens her very existence, Feo is left with no option but to go on the run. What follows is a story of revolution and adventure, about standing up for the things you love and fighting back. And, of course, wolves.
The Zebra’s Great Escape
Author: Katherine Rundell Illustrator: Sara Ogilvie
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Interest age: 6-8
Reading age: 6+
Can Mink save Gabriel the zebra’s parents from the evil Mr Spit? A beautifully illustrated longer picture book, perfect for animal lovers.