The School Between Winter and Fairyland

In this fresh and fascinating twist on magical boarding schools and the hero archetype, a twelve-year-old beastkeeper has a few things to teach the school’s “Chosen One” when they team up to find her missing twin brother and uncover the dark truth that lies at the school's heart—from the author of The Language of Ghosts and Ember and the Ice Dragons. Perfect for fans of Serafina by Robert Beatty and Neil Gaiman's Coraline.

Twelve-year-old Autumn Malog is a servant at the enchanting Inglenook School, where young magicians study to become the king’s future monster-hunters. Along with her Gran and three too many older brothers, she works as a beastkeeper, tending to Inglenook’s menagerie of terrifying monsters.

But when she isn’t mucking out the wyvern stalls or coaxing the resident boggart to behave, Autumn searches for clues about her twin brother’s mysterious disappearance. Everyone else thinks he was devoured by the feared Hollow Dragon, but Autumn is convinced she’s heard—and glimpsed—him calling to her from within the castle walls. But who will believe a lowly servant?

So when Cai Morrigan, the “Chosen One” prophesied to one day destroy the Hollow Dragon, comes to her for help, Autumn agrees on one condition: Together, they’ll search for her brother and uncover the dark truth at the heart of enchanting Inglenook School once and for all.