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the story was ok. I know I was not the target age range for this book and sometimes that's ok but I think younger kids will like this more than I did.
I'm not sure how I missed this Susan Cooper book. I'm a big fan of her other works. I found this on Scribd last night and decided to read it.I love authors that can make non-human creatures actually NON-human. The Boggart of the title is a creature of old Wild Magic. He's not motivated by many human things, and doesn't feel most human emotions. He has developed a taste for things like peanut butter and applesauce over the centuries, and once or twice, he's felt grief. In this book, he gets homes...
I thought that this book was kind of funny. I did feel bad for the Boggart at times though. A family gets custody of a castle that was there dead relative's, They end up bringing a Boggart with them as well. He causes a lot of mischief. I recommend this to anyone who likes fantasy
Cooper, Susan. The Boggart, Aladdin Paperbacks, 196 pages. Fictional chapter book, fantasy. Description: A Scottish spirit called the Boggart is unwittingly taken to Canada when a Canadian family inherits his castle. Emily and Jessup, the kids, struggle to communicate with the Boggart and get him to stop playing his disruptive tricks. Review: This book is at its best at the beginning and end of the story, when the Boggart resides on his Scottish Island. The prose is incredibly descriptive during...
The boggart has lived in a decayed Scottish castle for centuries, making harmless mischief and shapeshifting into different forms. But when the elderly caretaker dies, the castle is inherited by the Volnik family, modern Canadians who don't know about the boggart. They arrive in Scotland to check out their rather decrepit property; the boggart decides to take a nap inside a desk... right before the desk is shipped back to Canada.A few references to The Loch Ness Monster, maybe not as good as the...
I liked her Dark is Rising series, but I just can't get into this one.I wanted something light to read in between stories of a difficult classic but this just isn't working at the moment. I've been pecking away at it for about a week now and I'm barely to page 30. Normally for a book for this age level, I'd be to page 30 in under half an hour. It's just not holding my attention for more than a page or two at a time.
I am a big Susan Cooper fan, especially of The Dark is Rising series. I read this book because I am interested in boggart lore and there is a fair amount here in this story of a Canadian family who travel to Scotland when the dad inherits a castle there. When they decide to sell the castle and go home to Toronto, they pack up some of the furniture. Inside a desk, the boggart was sleeping. Late 20th century Canada is a big surprise to the Boggart, practical jokester extraordinaire.There is a fair...
My overwhelming impression reading this book was one of pleasant surprise. Though I've always enjoyed Susan Cooper's output in the past, considering how little is spoken about this one, I hadn't been expecting it to be as good as it is. The plot unfolds at a nice pace, and details from the beginning resurface at the end in an agreeably rounded denouement. I've given three stars because I believe I gave four to Cooper's The Dark is Rising sequence, and The Boggart doesn't quite achieve their leve...
An okay read for a sleepless night. Published in 1993 but it feels late seventies, with the media fascination for poltergeists, ESP, and the "adolescent girl rage causes telekinesis" trope (remember "Carrie"?) However, beyond a mention of the fact that the Boggart is a part of "Wild Magic", Cooper manages to keep it all very light. Nobody's special, nobody's Chosen--it's a comic little story of Canadians dealing with an ancient Scottish spirit they have inherited along with the castle and the fu...
I usually like kid-friendly stories involving computer technology, but, this one did not do much for me; it was just dumb and unexciting. Fans of youth fiction can do much better than this.
Nostalgia re-read 2018! I carried a couple of clear memories about this story: the Halloween costumes, and the ending with the computer game central to the plot. What my sheltered baby self skimmed right over was the gay couple in the dad's theatre troupe. :D I also didn't catch the undercurrent of tension with Barry, the high-school dropout.In 2018, the tech bits are hilariously dated; 2018 me also found the way the computer programming was handled to be written by someone who doesn't... know h...
What a delightful, humorous, saucy melding of ancient mythologies and modern technology! The boggart is an ancient Scottish spirit that lives for mischief. However, sometimes the mischief goes awry and gets even the Boggart into trouble. The Boggart ends up in Toronto and while he has loads of fun...discovers peanut butter and pizza!...he also finds that he is very confused by modern life and ends up missing his home in Scotland. But how can an ancient creature of wild magic get across the Atlan...
While finishing out my The Dark Is Rising re-read, I figured I'd pick this one up on the way down. Unfortunately, I didn't really like The Boggart very much. If the whole book had been like the first part in the Scottish village, I would have enjoyed it a lot more.As soon as we left Scotland to go to Canada, though, everything just felt incredibly disjointed. I liked the Boggart, and the humans seemed okay, but I couldn't really muster up any interest for them? Serious things were happening (the...
Similar to Spiderwick, this rare creature is rewarding to read about, while the social arcs of contemporary characters are tacked on in grasp at an unnecessary formula.From a technical perspective, Susan Cooper is obviously a good writer with few unnecessary words. However, certain ideas have an inharmonious feel from the main tone about Scotland and the Boggart with a lingering feeling of ulterior motive.Some family dynamics, the thread about a teen drug dealer with a heart of gold, the gang of...
The Boggart by Susan Cooper -- When the old MacDevon dies, Castle Keep on a Scottish island is inherited by the Volnick family. They visit their legacy before putting it on the market, and inadvertently ship the castle's mischievous boggart back to Toronto. What will a creature of Old Magic make of modern technology?As you might expect, the computer parts of the story are solidly 1993, and some of the specs mentioned will give savvy modern readers a good laugh. Moving beyond that, it's obvious t...
A slightly dated pre-teen book about a trickster spirit from Scotland that ends up shipped to Canada. The kids are the main characters and the adults busy or clueless. I liked the environment and the problem solving our heroes go through, and found the book fun, if short.Nine year old Jessup has more hobbies (hockey and computers) and is better fleshed out than older sister Emily. While in Toronto, there are a few too many instances of the adults not believing the kids, despite the evidence. Oth...
It's sad to me the number of books, like this one, that held so much magic for me as a child, but not as much so as an adult. Not the author's fault, just my feelings. This is still a good book, but it appears as though it has been adjusted for the times. It was originally written in 1993, and the copy I got from the library talks about mp3 players, cell phones, and flash drives. I know they're trying to reach a new audience, but that's part of the disconnect for me as an adult reader, who enjoy...
A fun and exciting story about the relationship between two children and a mysterious, mythical and magical creature! Definitely a book to share with a class - the mischievousness of the Boggart will have them attached to the story throughout, determined to find out what the Boggart will get up to next.
This was fabulously written. Susan had me crying along with the boggart in the first chapter...that was 13 pages. The visuals she painted of the boggart's memories and emotions were so very strong that my heart was touched immediately. So why did I only give it 4 stars? Sadly, for something that some authors do not anticipate...what was commonplace in 1993 (or late 1980s since I know it took time to get this story published) is so far out of date now that the target age readers may have no idea
A sweet story about friendship and Celtic myths from the same author who wrote The Dark Is Rising and The Grey King. After the Volnik family from Toronto, Canada inherits a Scottish castle, they don't realize they've also inherited the family Boggart. When the Volniks decide to sell the castle and ship selected family heirlooms back to Canada, one of those, a desk, also contains the Boggart, into which he unwittingly slipped. Now the Boggart is with a new family, in a new world, and his playful