Once There Was

A New York Times bestseller! Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them 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 creaturesand that she must take up his mantle, despite the many dangers. Once was, once wasnt. So began the stories Marjans father told her as a little girlfables like the story of the girl who sprung a unicorn from a hunters snare, or the nomad boy who rescued a baby shirdal. Tales of mythical beasts that filled her with curiosity and wonder. But Marjans not a little girl anymore. In the wake of her fathers sudden death, she is trying to hold it all together: her schoolwork, friendships, and keeping her dads shoestring veterinary practice from going under. Then, one day, she receives a visitor who reveals something stunning: Marjans father was no ordinary veterinarian. The creatures out of the stories he told her were realand he traveled the world to care for them. And now that hes gone, she must take his place. Marjan steps into a secret world hidden in plain sight, where magical creatures are bought and sold, treasured and trapped. She finds friends she never knew she neededa charming British boy who grew up with a griffon, a runaway witch seeking magic and homewhile trying to hide her double life from her old friends and classmates. The deeper Marjan gets into treating these animals, the closer she comes to finding who killed her fatherand to a shocking truth that will reawaken her sense of wonder and put humans and beasts in the gravest of danger.