Award-winning author Katherine Rundell returns with a new story inspired by her expedition to the Amazon and Eva Ibbotson's beloved Journey to the River Sea. A modern classic of adventure, survival and friendship, The Explorer has been shortlisted for the Costa Children's Book Award and is the must-have book of the year by the finest writer of her generation

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 * 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 * A triumph * Philip Pullman on The Wolf Wilder *

Katherine Rundell spent her childhood in Africa and Europe. After completing a degree in English and a doctorate on John Donne, she is now a full-time writer and a Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford, where she studies Renaissance literature and climbs old buildings at night. Katherine is the bestselling author of The Wolf Wilder and Rooftoppers, which won the Waterstones Children's Book Prize and the Blue Peter Book Award and was shortlisted for many others. In 2017 she was selected as one of Hay Festival's Hay30 influential young thinkers to watch. Hannah Horn is a UK-based artist who specialises in illustration, paint and printmaking. Born in Aberdeen, Hannah studied fashion illustration at the London College of Fashion. In her career thus far she has produced work for a diverse range of projects including fashion, print skateboarding brands and album artwork. The Explorer is her first children's fiction illustration project.