Lily and the Night Creatures

Nick Lake's Lily and the Night Creatures is a spooky fantasy for 10 year olds about a girl who goes home in the night and finds her parents aren't her parents any more.

What happens

Lily has been ill for a long time. She spends whole days in hospital having her blood cleaned, and her old friends have drifted away as if what she's got might be catching. Now her mum is having The Baby (Lily always gives it capital letters) and Lily has been packed off to stay with Granny Squeak.

She's furious. The baby is the last thing she wants. And she's forgotten Willo, the soft toy whale she's slept with every night since she was two.

So once Granny is snoring, Lily sneaks out and walks back through the dark village to her own house. The door opens before she can turn the key. There's her mum, holding a baby. Except her mum's eyes are flat and black, and so are the baby's.

"You don't live here anymore," says the thing that looks like her mother. And the door shuts.

Then a mole speaks to her in the back garden. So do a crow, a mouse with a needle for a sword and a grass snake. They've come to help her get back inside and get rid of the replacements.

The animals are the funny heart of it. Crow is very vain about his looks, and Mouse is extremely brave for someone so small (though not quite as mighty as he'd like).

Underneath the adventure it's a very honest story about feeling angry and left behind. Lily said some awful things to her mum that morning, and part of her wonders if she's caused all this. Lots of children with a new baby coming will know that muddle of jealousy and guilt, even without the coal-eyed parents!

Worth knowing before you hand it over

This one is genuinely creepy. The pretend dad chases Mouse round the utility room with a broom and says that children break very easily. The family dog turns on Lily. There's also a lot about Lily's illness, including a moment when she tells her dad she might not live very long.

For a child who's easily frightened, or who is living with illness in the family, that might be a lot. If they like their fairy tales with a bit of bite, it's really gripping.

What to read next

If they're after another girl who finds a copy of her mother with the wrong eyes, try Coraline. A bored girl opens a bricked-up door and finds a flat just like hers, with a mother who has big black buttons where her eyes should be.