"Lionboy," Zizou Corder, Puffin Books; 2003; 352 pp.

How old do you have to be to write your first book? Thirty years old? Twenty? How about 10? If you're Isabel Adomakoh Young, 10 is as good an age as any.

Isabel teamed up with her mother, Louisa Young (herself an established writer of books for grown-ups), on her debut novel, "Lionboy," released under the pen-name Zizou Corder.

The novel, the first installment of a "Lionboy" trilogy, certainly has the kind of wacky imaginativeness that only a child can possess.