Neil Gaiman meets Hans Christian Andersen in this delicious fairy tale full of mysterious spirits, daring escapes, and a beautiful message about the power of found families.



Egbert, Lotta, Sem, Fenna, and Milou. They are an artist, an inventor, a sewist, a baker, and their imaginative ringleader--and they are the unadoptables: children who have lived their whole lives at the Little Tulip orphanage in Amsterdam. When a corrupt sea captain threatens to make them his minions, Milou knows it's time to plot a daring escape. But she has no idea their caper will begin with a crime, or that it will take them down back roads and alleys, along frozen canals, to an old windmill housing an abandoned puppet theater, where the truth about her origins lies hidden if she can only untangle the clues. But with the sea captain hunting them down, and a nosy neighbor threatening to reveal them to the authorities, the unadoptables will have to work fast to uncover the truth and find a way to save each other.

Hana Tooke was born in Alkmaar, the Netherlands, and now lives in Bath, England, with her family, a cat, and a spider called Spooder Bob. She received her BA in music from Plymouth University and an MA in writing for young people from Bath Spa University. Before becoming a children's book author, Hana was a singer, a primary school teacher, a cheese seller, and a mad scientist.

​