The Adventures of Anatole

Newbery Medal-winning author Nancy Willard's trilogy of adventure tales, now in one volume. Children won't be able to put down these stories of the journeys of a boy and his orange cat, Plumpet.

Anatole has a knack for seeking and finding adventure, often with Plumpet, his orange cat, who is accustomed to ghost trains, amnesiac soldiers, flying horses, and wallpaper portals, just a few of the enchantments encountered along the way. From his perilous search for wild fennel to cure his grandmother’s asthma, to his high-stakes game of checkers to save his uncle from a wizard’s evil spell, Anatole’s missions will keep young readers turning the pages of this omnibus edition of the Newbery Medal–winning author Nancy Willard’s trilogy of fantasy tales: Sailing to Cythera, The Island of the Grass King, and Uncle Terrible. David McPhail’s pen-and-ink illustrations throughout are beautifully detailed engagements with Willard’s world of make-believe. Anatole may be small but he is determined to right the wrongs he finds in each of the lands he enters. Whether kindness or evil will prevail is a matter of suspense, but Anatole is always on the side of the light.“Nancy Willard’s imagination—in verse or prose, for children or adults—builds castles stranger than any mad King of Bavaria ever built. She imagines with a wonderful concreteness. But also, she takes real language and by literal-mindedness turns it into the structure of dream.” —Donald Hall, The New York Times

"Both author and illustrator weave tapestries in which make-believe and reality blend joyfully...The only works comparable in pure romance and humor to the Anatole stories are the inventions of Lewis Carroll." —Publishers WeeklyNancy Willard (1936–2017) was a prolific author of seventy books of poems and fiction for adults and children. In 1982, her picture book A Visit to William Blake’s Inn: Poems for Innocent and Experienced Travelers was the first poetry book to receive the Newbery Medal. It also received a Caldecott Honor, making it the first Newbery winner to also receive a Caldecott. She taught creative writing at Vassar College from 1965 until she retired in 2013.

David McPhail was born in Newburyport, Massachusetts, and attended the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. He has written and/or illustrated more than a hundred books.