From Newbery Medal-winning author Linda Sue Park, this is a captivating fantasy-adventure about a boy, a bat, and an amazing transformation. The first book in an enchanting trilogy, Forest of Wonders richly explores the links between magic and botany, family and duty, environment and home.
Raffa Santana has always loved the mysterious Forest of Wonders. For a gifted young apothecary like him, every leaf could unleash a kind of magic.
When an injured bat crashes into his life, Raffa invents a cure from a rare crimson vine that he finds deep in the Forest. His remedy saves the animal but also transforms it into something much more than an ordinary bat, with far-reaching consequences.
Raffa’s experiments lead him away from home to the forbidding city of Gilden, where troubling discoveries make him question whether exciting botanical inventions—including his own—might actually threaten the very creatures of the Forest he wants to protect.
Raffa Santana has always loved the mysterious Forest of Wonders. For a gifted young apothecary like him, every leaf has the potential to unleash a kind of magic.
When an injured bat crashes into Raffa’s life, he invents a cure from a rare crimson vine that he finds deep in the Forest. The powers of the vine are stronger than Raffa could have imagined. His remedy saves the animal but also transforms it into something much more than an ordinary bat, with far-reaching consequences.
Raffa’s experiments lead him away from home to the forbidding city of Gilden, where troubling discoveries make him question who he can trust . . . and whether exciting botanical inventions, including his own, might actually threaten the very creatures of the Forest he wants to protect.
This enchanting new series from Linda Sue Park richly explores the links between magic and botany, family and duty, environment and home.
“A book of many wonders, including lovable young heroes, astonishing apothecary magic, and the funniest talking bat ever. It’s amazing, unpredictable, and so, so smart; I absolutely loved it!” —Tui Sutherland, New York Times bestselling author of Wings of Fire
A provocative moral tale about the relationship between humans and animals.? In the end, the ambiguity of the message is one of the novel's strengths. In a genre that often paints good and evil in black and white, Park has written a book with a lot of gray.
