"A deliciously satisfying adventure with a redoubtable set of characters surviving a plane crash into a very realistic jungle with an intriguing mystery at its heart"
After crashing hundreds of miles from civilisation in the Amazon rainforest, Fred, Con, Lila and Max are utterly alone and in grave danger. They have no food, no water and no chance of being rescued. But they are alive and they have hope. As they negotiate the wild jungle they begin to find signs that something - someone - has been there before them. Could there possibly be a way out after all?
From his seat in the tiny aeroplane, Fred watches as the mysteries of the Amazon jungle pass by below him. He has always dreamed of becoming an explorer, of making history and of reading his name amongst the lists of great discoveries. If only he could land and look about him. As the plane crashes into the canopy, Fred is suddenly left without a choice. He and the three other children may be alive, but the jungle is a vast, untamed place. With no hope of rescue, the chance of getting home feels impossibly small. Except, it seems, someone has been there before them ...
Katherine Rundell just gets better and better. I loved The Explorer. On one level it's a very exciting adventure story of four children fighting for survival in the Amazon - but it's also saying profound things about human nature and love and loss Jacqueline Wilson
There's a gritty solidity to the horrors and the beauties, and a completely convincing depth to the characters, all of whom I loved. Katherine Rundell is now unarguably in the FIRST RANK Philip Pullman
I love every one of Katherine Rundell's stories, but she gets more assured each time - this was everything I wanted it to be and more. Read it! Kiran Millwood Hargrave, author of The Girl of Ink and Stars
A magnificent adventure Abi Elphinstone
The Explorer by @kdbrundell is the best Amazon adventure since Journey to the River Sea. A bold, beautiful celebration of hearts with claws Lauren St John
Author
About Katherine Rundell
Katherine Rundell is a multi-million-bestselling author whose novels for children have won the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize, the Blue Peter Book Award and the Costa Children’s Book Award, among many others. Impossible Creatures was Waterstones Book of the Year 2023, and in 2024 Katherine was named the British Book Awards Author of the Year and Impossible Creatures won the Children’s Fiction Book of the Year.
Her books for adults include Super-Infinite, winner of the Baillie Gifford Prize.
Katherine spent her childhood in Africa and Europe before taking her degree at the University of Oxford and becoming a Quondam Fellow of All Souls College and a Fellow of St Catherine’s College, Oxford, where she works on Renaissance literature.
Very occasionally she goes climbing across the rooftops of Oxford late at night.
