Request a Review Copy Request an Interview

Media

Download Hi-Res Book Cover

Download Hi-Res Author Photo

Press Release

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Leslie Calhoun, Publicity Assistant
lcalhoun@penguinrandomhouse.com
(719) 268-1932

The Monster in the Hollows and The Warden and the Wolf King, the Epic Conclusion of Fantasy Adventure Series THE WINGFEATHER SAGA from Critically-Acclaimed Singer, Songwriter, & Novelist Andrew Peterson—Now Available in Collector’s Hardcover Editions Featuring New Illustrations and Maps!

“The Wingfeather Saga is witty, imaginative, and full of heart. Highly recommended for middle-grade readers who’ve run out of Narnia novels and are searching for their next great series.”
—Anne Bogel, creator of the Modern Mrs. Darcy blog and host of the What Should I Read Next? podcast
 
Many thousands of readers of all ages have enjoyed Andrew Peterson’s wildly imaginative fantasy adventure novels in The Wingfeather Saga since On the Edge of the Dark Sea of Darkness (Book 1) was originally published more than 10 years ago.
 
Now, for the first time, WaterBrook/Penguin Random House is releasing the acclaimed and well-loved novels The Monster in the Hollows (Book 3) and The Warden and the Wolf King (Book 4) in special collector’s hardcover editions that include all-new illustrations and hand-drawn maps, intrinsic to the classic and imaginative Wingfeather style.   

Peterson’s creative narrative explores themes of love, identity, sacrifice, wonder, and courage throughout the journeys of many inspiring and beloved characters. With its epic storyline, fantastic world, and quirky creatures, the Wingfeather Saga is ideal for fans of The Chronicles of Narnia, Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Wings of Fire, A Series of Unfortunate Events, and other fantasy and adventure series.
 
In The Monster in the Hollows (WaterBrook, 10/6/20), the kingdom of Anniera has fallen, and the royal family is on the run. Relentlessly pursued by the Fang armies of Gnag the Nameless, Janner and his family hope to find refuge in the last safe place in the world: the Green Hollows.
 
But a new problem threatens their hoped-for peace: Janner’s younger brother, Kalmar—heir to the throne of Anniera—has grown a tail. And gray fur. Not to mention two pointed ears and long, dangerous fangs. To the suspicious folk of the Green Hollows, he looks like a monster. But Janner knows better. His brother isn’t as scary as he looks. He’s perfectly harmless. Or is he?
 
There’s a monster in the Hollows, and the truth lurks in the shadows.

The Warden and the Wolf King (WaterBrook 10/6/20), marks the sweeping conclusion to the saga.  All winter long, Janner, Kalmar, and Leeli—Throne Warden, Wolf King, and Song Maiden of Anniera—have prepared to battle alongside the folk of the Green Hollows against Gnag the Nameless and the Fangs of Dang.
 
But when the Fangs invade Ban Rona, the children are separated. Janner is alone and lost in the hills; Leeli is fighting the Fangs from the rooftops of the city; and Kalmar, who carries a terrible secret, is on a course for the Deeps of Throg. Meanwhile in Skree, Sara Cobbler and Maraly Weaver care for the broken Artham Wingfeather as Fangs muster for battle.
 
The electrifying conclusion of the Wingfeather Saga blends sacrifice and courage with wonder and danger. Sea dragons lurk in the waters. Wicked Stranders crawl through the burrows. Ridgerunners and trolls prowl the land. Cloven haunt the forest. And monsters, Fangs, and assorted villains lie between the children and their only hope of victory.
These new hardcover editions of The Monster in the Hollows and The Warden and the Wolf King continue the exhilarating adventure of the Wingfeathers and guide readers on a thrilling journey to the saga’s epic conclusion.
For more information, including maps, artwork, a pronunciation guide, coloring pages and other Wingfeather Saga-related downloads, visit wingfeathersaga.com.


Praise for THE WINGFEATHER SAGA 
 
“I love all the adventure and the wild inventiveness and, most of all, the heart in Andrew’s books. He is a poet and a master storyteller. I want to read anything he writes.”—Sally Lloyd-Jones, New York Times best-selling author of children’s books
 
“An experience your family will never forget. I can’t recommend these books highly enough!”—Sarah Mackenzie, author of The Read-Aloud Family and founder and host of the Read-Aloud Revival podcast
 
“A wildly imaginative, wonderfully irreverent epic that shines with wit and wisdom—and features excellent instructions on how to cope with thwaps, Fangs, and the occasional toothy cow.”—Allan Heinberg, screenwriter of DC’s Wonder Woman, creator of Marvel Comics’s The Young Avengers
 
“Immensely clever!”—Phil Vischer, creator of VeggieTales
 


ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Andrew Peterson is an award-winning singer, songwriter, and author of the Wingfeather Saga. He’s also the founder of The Rabbit Room, an organization that fosters community through story, art, and music. Andrew and his wife, Jamie, have two sons, Aeden and Asher, and one daughter, Skye. They live in the Nashville, Tennessee, area on a wooded hill in a little house they call the Warren—where they are generally safe from bumpy digtoads and toothy cows.
 
 
https://andrew-peterson.com
https://www.instagram.com/andrewpetersonmusic/
https://www.instagram.com/wingfeathersaga/
https://www.facebook.com/WingfeatherSaga/
https://www.facebook.com/andrewpetersonmusic/
https://twitter.com/andrewpeterson
 
 
ABOUT THE ILLUSTRATOR:
Joe Sutphin was known in school as “that kid who can draw.” He is the illustrator of Watership Down graphic novel, Dr. Critchlore’s School for Minions by Sheila Grau, and the New York Times bestselling novel Word of Mouse by James Patterson and Chris Grabenstein.
 
 
NOTE: Digital review copies of both books, excerpts, author interviews, and articles/blog posts are all available upon request.

On sale: October 6, 2020
 
Juvenile Fiction/Fantasy/Action & Adventure
 
The Monster in the Hollows
(The Wingfeather Saga, Book 3)
ISBN: 9780525653585 · Hardcover · $13.99 / $18.99 Canada
e-Book ISBN 9780525653592 · $8.99 / $10.99 Canada
 
The Warden and the Wolf King
(The Wingfeather Saga, Book 4)
ISBN: 9780525653608 · Hardcover · $13.99 / $18.99 Canada
e-Book ISBN 9780525653615 · $8.99 / $10.99 Canada
 
 
 
Suggested Interview Questions for Andrew Peterson,
Author of The Wingfeather Saga
 
 


   1. Tell us how you were first inspired to begin writing The Wingfeather Saga. Were your children your first “test” readers of these imaginative stories? Were the Igiby children—the main protagonists in The Wingfeather Saga—inspired by your own kids?
 
I can’t even remember how many times I started and abandoned the epic fantasy I always wanted to write. Writing is hard, and when you’re a kid, it doesn’t take much to knock you off the wagon. I even got about 100 pages into a Batman novel in high school (this was in the early nineties, before such a thing was heard of), but when it blew off the back of my moped on the way home from school, I abandoned that, too. Music came along and I found a career touring and songwriting—but in the back of my head I hoped that the day would come when I stopped talking about writing the book and started actually writing it.
 
The thing that did it was having children. I couldn’t wait to share the books I loved when I was little, and as soon as my boys were old enough, I read them the Narnia books. The hours I spent reliving that story, remembering what it was like to be a kid again, the wonder I felt, and the good practice of seeing the story through their eyes, all gave me the push I needed to get busy. I had to know what it was like to craft a big, dangerous, beautiful story. We had two boys and a girl, and I loosely modeled the Igiby children on them, though at the beginning my kids were a few years younger than the kids in the story. The crazy thing was, all three of our kids grew into many of the best traits of their counterparts. Every time I had a new chunk of the story written, I would read it to them, and once again, seeing the story through their eyes was a tremendous help.
 


   1. What made you decide to make Nia and Podo main characters alongside the child protagonists?
 
It’s pretty rare in a story like this for the parents to be present and intelligent and tuned into what the kids are experiencing. I’m not sure why that is, but I know that my wife and I both work hard to remember what it’s like to be young, to take our kids’ struggles seriously, and to actually listen to them when they’re opening up about whatever’s going on inside. For some reason it’s so easy to have the parents of the characters be detached, or oblivious, or passive—or in the worst case, antagonistic to the children. That just doesn’t reflect the culture of our family, or the culture of a lot of families I know. It’s too easy to make the parents the enemy. In this story (and in real life), things work best when the family is together, when the kids know the parents have their backs, and vice versa. We’re on the same team. Podo and Nia aren’t perfect by any stretch—nor are the kids—but the family is intensely loyal. That meant Podo and Nia (and Peet the Sock Man) were crucial to the story, and had their own battles to fight alongside the children. 
 


   1. How have you combined your passions of storytelling and songwriting in the Wingfeather Saga?
 
My songs have always been story-driven. There’s usually a narrative arc to my concerts. Writing novels is vastly different from writing songs, but a love of story is at the heart of both. Having experienced the power of music to heal, to push back at whatever darkness is in us and around us, I wanted to make that tangible in The Wingfeather Saga. Music, in the Wingfeather world, is a kind of magic (which I happen to think is true in our world, too). Of course, I couldn’t resist peppering the books with the occasional lyric—one of which I put to music.
 
 
 
 


   1. In The Wingfeather Saga, you create a world of wonder and have a number of quirky characters that inhabit it. How long did it take you to develop this world?
 
From the time I sat down with my old high school sketchbook and drew the first map, to the time I spotted the first Wingfeather book at Barnes and Noble, was about five years. Taking Tolkien’s advice, I started with a map. Until the world was built, I kept running into walls, so I scrapped everything and started with rivers and continents and creepy cows in the woods. Not long after that I added cities and castles and villages—and then the Igiby children appeared, like sprouts in a garden.
 


   1. What is unique about these new editions that are releasing October 6?
 
I’ve loved to draw since I was a kid, and illustrations are one of my love languages. The first few books had a smattering of illustrations, a few of which were done by yours truly, but it always bummed me out that we weren’t able to add more. This time around, not only are the books in hardcover, but we also got artist Nicholas Kole (the art director and character designer for the Wingfeather short film) to create four gorgeous covers. Joe Sutphin, who illustrated the fourth book and is currently working on the first ever Watership Down graphic novel, dove in and added forty (forty!) new drawings for the whole series. Now, not only is the story something that would have pleased twelve-year-old Andrew, but the book itself and its many illustrations and maps would have nudged him from “pleased” to “gobsmacked.”
 


   1. What kind of books impacted you when you were young?     
 
I was a nerd before it was cool to be a nerd. In junior high and high school you would never have caught me without a Batman, Green Arrow, or Wolverine comic—or a Dragonlance, Narnia, or Hitchhiker’s Guide book. I also grew up on a steady diet of The Princess Bride, Coen Brothers movies, and everything by Spielberg.
 


   1. What is the importance of fostering your artistic imagination as a Christian?
 
In an amazing essay by J. R. R. Tolkien called “On Fairy Stories,” he argues that one of the ways humans bear God’s image is our creativity. That can mean a lot of things, but one of the most human things we can do is to make up stories. “We make in the manner in which we’re made,” is the way he put it in a poem he wrote for C. S. Lewis. There’s a long history of Christians who put their imaginations to work building worlds, writing poems, painting pictures, and writing music. I think Christianity is the best garden in which an imagination can grow. Stories, in particular, are one of the best ways to understand the truth—the truth of the world we live in, the truth of our own hearts, and the truth of who God is. A redeemed imagination is one of the best ways of knowing, and showing, what the world is really like.
 


   1. A fiercely loyal fanbase has emerged for the Wingfeather Saga. Tell us about them. Did you ever expect to receive such an enthusiastic response? What is one of your favorite responses you have received so far?
 
I have stacks of letters from children and parents who have connected with these stories. Some are from kids who have long lists of questions about toothy cows and Fangs. Some are from dads who are grateful for read-alouds their whole family enjoyed—from the teenagers to the grandparents to the little ones. Some are from moms who are thankful for stories that did more than entertain their families, but also edified them by demonstrating what courage and loyalty and hope can look like. These responses bring tears to my eyes, because it was my prayer and my wildest hope for what this story would mean to people. One of the biggest honors is that I’ve met children named Janner, Kalmar, Leeli, and Artham (and have seen pictures of dogs named Nugget and Dugger and Podo). Because our family so treasured the hours we spent reading aloud, it’s especially gratifying to have been a small part of those memories for other families.
 


   1. Who are the writers that have inspired you the most?
 
Well, just because they’re obvious answers doesn’t meant it’s not true: Lewis and Tolkien are the undisputed GOATs. But I also love Chesterton, MacDonald, Wangerin, Wendell Berry, and fellow writers in my own community like my brother A. S. Peterson, Jennifer Trafton, N. D. Wilson, Sally Lloyd-Jones, and Jonathan Rogers.
 


   1. Where can people find out more about The Wingfeather Saga?
 
Visit my website, Andrew-Peterson.com, which will get you to WingfeatherSaga.com (where there’s a vibrant forum of fans). You can also check out the animated short film, which you can watch on Amazon Prime and YouTube.
 


   1. What advice would you offer to young aspiring writers?
 
Read constantly, write constantly. Find a good community. Pray for help, because writing is difficult work, and you can’t do it alone. Also, think of writing as a way of loving people. Self-expression is a dead end.
 
 
 

 
 
For interviews and additional review copies, contact:
Leslie Calhoun / lcalhoun@penguinrandomhouse.com / (719) 268-1932

Contact Publicist

lcalhoun@penguinrandomhouse.com