Once There Was

Kiyash Monsef, Nikki Massoud

eAudio - 2023

An Odyssey Award FinalistA New York Times bestseller! A Morris Award Finalist Impossible Creatures meets Neil Gaiman in this "striking and heartfelt" (Kirkus Reviews) novel about an Iranian American girl who discovers that her father was secretly a veterinarian to magical creatures—and that she must take up his mantle, despite the many dangers.Once was, once wasn't. So began the stories Marjan's father told her as a little girl—fables like the story of the girl who sprung a unicorn from a hunter's snare, or the nomad boy who rescued a baby shirdal. Tales of mythical beasts that filled her with curiosity and wonder. But Marjan's not a little girl anymore. In the wake of her father's sudden death, she is... trying to hold it all together: her schoolwork, friendships, and keeping her dad's shoestring veterinary practice from going under. Then, one day, she receives a visitor who... more