It's here! Browse the 2024 Penguin Christmas gift guide
The Secret of the Moonshard

The Secret of the Moonshard

Summary

Brought to you by Puffin.

The breathtakingly imaginative new fantasy novel from Branford Boase winner Struan Murray.


Domino is an eleven-year-old girl with a strange affliction: if she goes anywhere near magic, it will kill her.

All her life she's been trapped in a floating laboratory, safe from magic but not from the cruel children and the crueler Science Barons who live there. Domino believes the Barons are trying to invent a cure for her magic allergy, but when a mysterious wizard arrives and unleashes total chaos, she discovers that everything she's been told is a lie.

Domino escapes to the wondrous city of Abzalaymon, its streets filled with marvels she's never seen, from automobiles to televisions to hulking thunder lizards. But the Science Barons are on her trail, and Domino must brave a hidden realm of magic if she is to defeat their sinister plot, and uncover a secret that might just save the world: the Secret of the Moonshard.

'This is a perfect fantasy adventure' - Katya Balen, author of October, October.

'Sensational storytelling' - AF Steadman, author of Skandar and the Unicorn Thief.


©2024 Struan Murray (P)2024 Penguin Audio

Reviews

  • The Secret of the Moonshard has everything you could wish for in a fantasy book and more. Exceptional worldbuilding, characters that feel both fresh and familiar, genius twists impeccably executed and an endlessly imaginative story that will have readers turning pages late into the night. Sensational storytelling.
    AF Steadman, author of Skandar and the Unicorn Thief

About the authors

Struan Murray

Struan Murray is Scottish and grew up in Edinburgh, the youngest of a large, rowdy family of redheads. His debut novel, Orphans of the Tide, won the prestigious Branford Boase Award, and was included in the Guardian's 'Best children's books of 2020'. When he's not writing, Struan is a lecturer at the University of Oxford.
Learn More

Vivienne To (Illustrator)

Vivienne To is an illustrator and visual development artist. She has worked across feature films, television, commercials and children's publishing. She created concept art for animated movies such as The Lego Movie and Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole and was the art director on The Lego Batman Movie. She has illustrated several picture books including The Sloth Who Came To Stay, written by Margaret Wild, which was short-listed for the CBCA Award for New Illustrator.

Vivienne was born in Melbourne, grew up in Sydney and lives in Wellington, New Zealand. When she isn't drawing, she can be found knitting on the couch, watching cute dogs at the local park or lost in the pages of a good book.
Learn More

Sign up to the Puffin newsletter

Stories, ideas and giveaways to help you spark young imaginations