The Unadoptables

A high-speed, witty, absurd and joyful adventure

A high-speed, witty, absurd and joyful adventure

Perfection!

A corker of a story.

A book to absolutely fall in love with

A compelling, gorgeously-written story about the power of friendship and the true meaning of family. It's a mystery with a hint of magic, featuring characters who feel entirely real ... perfection!

I adored this story from the very first page. Sleek as Amsterdam velvet and full of heart-clutching mysteries, moonlit escapes on frozen canals, puppets with heartbeats and secret messages engraved upon pocket watches. Follow Milou and her adopted family on a glorious adventure as they race through the streets of Amsterdam, determined to fight for their freedom with spectacular wit, dazzling theatrical wonder and huge amount of hope , courage and everlasting friendship. A book to absolutely fall in love with.

A corker of a story . I loved the writing, the setting, the STUPENDOUS action scenes, how well-paced it was, with such drama, revelations, plot twists and the loveliest of final lines... and one of the most satisfying endings I've read in a long while , with the promise of more in the epilogue. Bravo, Hana - what a book!

This delicious debut had me reading late into the night ... Beautiful but accessible writing , thrilling action , a hint of magic and unforgettable characters are d elivered with wit, wisdom and heart in an enviably distinct voice. It's a story of unforgettable friendship and what it really means to be a family... I can't wait to see what Tooke does next.

Effortlessly merging the gothic and ghastly with the eccentric and absurd , Hana Tooke's mesmerising debut sends a quintet of abandoned orphans off on a caper across nineteenth-century Amsterdam, complete with sinister supervillains, heart-in-mouth cliff-hangers and lashings of evocative period flavour .

While the vivid, Dickensian setting - grim orphanage, icy mists, and shadowy dockyards - and quaint clockwork creations and life-size puppets spin a web of Gothic creepiness, the bonds among this found family of lively orphans add plenty of warmth and light . Unfolding with the clarity of a fairy tale, this sure-footed debut casts a delightfully spooky spell

Hana Tooke (Author)
Hana Tooke grew up on a polder near Amsterdam, in a house filled with peculiar clocks and a head filled with a peculiar imagination. She's been a singer, a teacher, and even a mad-scientist, but these days she spends her days writing stories, sculpting puppets, and collecting curiosities. She lives in Bath with two humans, a cat, and a skeleton marionette.
Her debut novel, The Unadoptables , was shortlisted for the Bath Children's Novel Award and longlisted for the Branford Boase.

Ayesha L. Rubio (Illustrator)
Ayesha L. Rubio was born in Madrid. She studied Fine Arts in Spain and England before beginning her work as an illustrator. She has three books of her own and has embarked on new adventures in the world of animation.