The Wizards of Once

World-conquering * The Guardian * The first volume of a new series by author and illustrator of the How to Train Your Dragon series is an event....Funny, thoughtful and surprisingly wise and lively, this is another coup from Cowell * The Sunday Times * Cowell's latest work offers a fully realized fantasy world abounding with witches, sprites, killer plants, and talking ravens. Her scrappy teenage protagonists are wonderfully flawed and almost scarily realistic in their bravery, selfishness, and desire to please their parents yet not surrender their individuality. The omniscient narrator's voice is pitch-perfect, sounding appropriately young without ever talking down to the target audience. Readers will fall in love with the imaginative worldbuilding and humorous dialogue and asides....A delightful magical romp. * Kirkus Reviews * The detail of Cowell's world is a delight...This one will run and run. * The Observer * I am pleased to report that The Wizards of Once...is terrific. It introduces us to a new fantasy world, though its roots again lie deep in a familiar mulch of history and legend. Not the Norse myths this time, but a fantasia of ancient Britain, a land of dark, mysterious forests and powerful magic. What follows is a rollercoaster of suspense and surprise...The book has all the familiar Cowell trademarks. The story never flags, even at moments of calm and reflection, and the writing has humour, grit and depth. She provides her own illustrations, and their scratchy style and scribbled annotations strike the right note. It all adds up to a beautifully designed hardback volume. * The Guardian * ... sustain a sense of wonder and mayhem from start to finish. Cowell skillfully mixes adventure with silliness in a satisfying story for younger fantasy fans. * Publishers Weekly * ... it is by turns grim, poignant, philosophical and terrifying, woven through with Cowell's slapstick humour. * The Times Literary Supplement * An exciting and promising start... A fantastical adventure ensues, filled with mythical beasts, cliff-hangers and an epic struggle between good and evil * The Scotsman * bristles with rambunctious energy and humour, and feels as if it has been slapped down on the page with glee and mischief....its characters, Xar the wizard who has no magic, and Wish the warrior princess, who happens to have a magic spoon, are irresistible. * Herald Scotland * Wizards, warriors, sprites and snow cats in a brilliant new fantasy adventure. * The Bookseller * The Wizards of Once is... terrific... a rollercoaster of suspense. * The Guardian * I loved The Wizards of Once. Of course! The new world Cowell has created is just as vivid...There's plenty of magic in Cowell's wild woods and it rises from the pages fresh and clear and with fizzling energy... And it's funny, as you'd expect. Cheerfully funny with daft jokes and slapstick and sharp dialogue... The underlying theme is one of tolerance of difference. She writes with empathy and encourages it in her readers that way. So much better to let kids come to their own conclusions once you've gently pointed them in the right direction. I think this is one reason why Cowell is so popular - there is a trust between author and reader that both feel and respect. * The Book Bag * It's so brilliantly entertaining, exciting and scary, you'll be desperate to get your hands on the sequel. * The Week Junior * Cressida Cowell is a gifted author with a real talent for taking her readers right inside her fantasy worlds. Now we have the start of a great new series, with more to look forward to...The illustrations by the author are an outstanding feature of the book - they really convey the atmosphere and propel the reader into this fantastical world. Totally absorbing. * Parents in Touch * I really enjoyed this book because there were moments of suspense where you could guess what would happen and 9 times out of 10 be shocked by what happened.

Cressida Cowell is the author and the illustrator of the globally bestselling How to Train Your Dragon series. Her next series, The Wizards of Once, was an international bestseller. Cressida is also the author of the Emily Brown picture books, illustrated by Neal Layton. The Which Way series is her most recent and has already been translated into 15 languages. How to Train Your Dragon has sold over 8 million books worldwide in 42 languages. It is also an award-winning DreamWorks film series, and a TV series shown on Netflix and CBBC. The Wizards of Once has been translated into 38 languages and also signed by DreamWorks. Cressida was the Waterstones Children's Laureate (2019-2022). She is an ambassador for the National Literacy Trust and the Reading Agency and a founder patron of the Children's Media Foundation. She has won numerous prizes for her books, including the Gold Award in the Nestle Children's Book Prize, the Hay Festival Medal for Fiction, and Philosophy Now' magazine's 2015 Award for Contributions in the Fight Against Stupidity. She grew up in London and on a small, uninhabited island off the west coast of Scotland and she now lives in Hammersmith with her husband, three children and a dog called Pigeon.