Creatures of the In Between

Cindy Lin's Creatures of the In Between is a fantasy for 10 year olds about a prince who has to find his own monster before he's allowed to rule.

What happens

Jin is twelve and crown prince of Samtei. Every ruler before him has bonded with a magical beast, a monstermate, by the age of thirteen. The problem is that monsters have almost vanished. The only one left at the palace belongs to his grandmother, the empress dowager. It's a bad-tempered phoenix with a serrated beak.

Jin knows the imperial bestiary almost by heart. Kirin, winged horses, every kind of dragon (he'd really love a dragon). But the ministers call him a runt behind his back. When his grandmother catches him sneaking a look at the bestiary, she bans him from the Monster Festival and sets him an essay instead.

So he sneaks out anyway, dressed like a palace worker, wearing a lock charm that once belonged to his father. There's talk of Whisper Island, the sanctuary where the last monsters were hidden long ago. That's where Jin's story is heading.

It's a gorgeous world to spend time in. The palace is all silks, lacquer and butter lamps, and the empty menagerie still has its old cages for winged horses and dragon-headed turtles. Jin is great fun as well. He picks locks, swears in his own made-up words (monstermuck!) and sticks up for Bingyoo, the new kitchen girl everyone else shouts at.

There's a harder edge, though. Jin's grandmother is frightening. He remembers being caned with bamboo for disobeying her, and her phoenix scratches a minister until he bleeds. His parents died when he was a baby, and nobody will tell him how.

It's all told with a light touch. A very sensitive reader might find the grandmother a bit much, but most will just want Jin to prove her wrong.

What to read next

If they love the idea of bonding with a creature as a rite of passage, try Wild Born from the Spirit Animals series. In it, children who turn eleven drink the Nectar at a ceremony and hope a spirit animal answers.