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.

• A Thrilling Animal Fantasy: Raffa's cure doesn't just heal the injured bat—it gives him a voice. Now Raffa has a magical friend... and a dangerous secret.
• Magic and Botany: For young apothecary Raffa, every leaf and vine in the Forest of Wonders holds the potential for a cure. But he soon learns that not all magical inventions should be created.
• An Epic Fantasy Trilogy: The adventure begins in this first book of the Wing & Claw series, a classic fantasy perfect for young readers who love magical creatures and enchanted forests.
• A Middle Grade Adventure: When his discoveries take him from his forest home to the city of Gilden, Raffa must choose between fame and protecting the very animals he loves.

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.