book cover

In the Shadow of the Wolf Queen

by Kiran Millwood Hargrave

Interest age: 9 to 11
Reading age: 9+

Published by Orion Children’s Books, 2023

  • Adventure
  • Fantasy
  • Myths and legends

About this book

Ysolda desperately wishes she had the power to hear trees talk, like her sister Hari can. But when the terrifying Wolf Queen, who rules the empire that borders Ysolda’s quiet forest home, kidnaps Hari, Ysolda is forced to question everything she thought she knew.

Determined to rescue her sister, Ysolda sets out on a dangerous journey to the Queen’s fortress. It’s a journey that will take her farther than she’s ever been before and, after striking an impossible bargain with the Queen herself, she embarks on a quest to find the fabled End-World Wood and an ancient mythical being that the Queen believes will give her even greater power than she already possesses. Where will their journey lead and how much are they willing to sacrifice to each get what they seek?

The start of a new series, this is a beautifully and gently written story that is part adventure, part fairytale, part mystery, and with underlying tones of magic and mythology. With a main character as fierce and brave as any you’d find in a Katherine Rundell novel, themes of environmental consciousness, and elements of Tolkien, it’s an immersive and immensely enjoyable read.

About the author

Kiran Millwood Hargrave was born in Surrey in 1990, and her earliest ambition was to be a cat, closely followed by a cat-owner or the first woman on Mars. She has achieved only one of these things, but discovered that being a writer lets you imagine whatever you want.

She started writing poetry in her final year at university, producing three poetry books and a play before she turned to fiction. Her bestselling debut The Girl of Ink & Stars, about a mapmaker’s daughter who must save her island, won the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize 2017 and the British Book Awards Children’s Book of the Year. Her second standalone story, The Island at the End of Everything, was shortlisted for the Blue Peter Book Award and the Costa Children’s Book Award, and long listed for the CILIP Carnegie Medal. Her third book, The Way Past Winter, was the Blackwell’s Children’s Book of the Year 2018.

Kiran lives in Oxford with her husband, the artist Tom de Freston, and the fulfilment of one of her earliest ambitions: their cat, Luna.

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