Maia, orphaned at 13 in England, is very unhappy to be staying with distant relatives hundreds of miles up the Amazon. She becomes friends with a mysterious English boy who lives with the local Indians. But when they are forced to flee upriver, they are pursued by some very eccentric characters.

 

This book is the winner of numerous awards. It was recognised by the Smarties Book Award. It was recognised by the Carnegie Award. The CILIP Carnegie Medal is awarded by childrens librarians for an outstanding book written in English for children and young people. It also was recognised in the Book i Couldn'T Put down Prize category by the Blue Peter Book Award. The Blue Peter Book Awards are a set of literary awards for children's books conferred by the BBC television programme Blue Peter. They were inaugurated in 2000 for books published in 1999. The Awards have been managed by reading charity, Booktrust, since 2006. It was recognised in the Book i Couldn'T Put down category by the Blue Peter Book Award. The Blue Peter Book Awards are a set of literary awards for children's books conferred by the BBC television programme Blue Peter. They were inaugurated in 2000 for books published in 1999. The Awards have been managed by reading charity, Booktrust, since 2006. Also it was recognised in the Book of the Year category by the Whitbread Book Award. It was recognised in the Children's Book category by the Whitbread Book Award.

There are 304 pages in this book. This book was published 2001 by Pan Macmillan .

The Unknown Adventurer is still believed to be at large in the wild.