The Boggart

Centuries old and thousands of miles from home

When Emily and Jess Volnik's family inherits a remote, crumbling Scottish castle, they also inherit the Boggart — an invisible, mischievous spirit who's been playing tricks on residents of Castle Keep for generations. Then the Boggart is trapped in a rolltop desk and inadvertently shipped to the Volniks' home in Toronto, where nothing will ever be the same — for the Volniks or the Boggart.

In a world that doesn't believe in magic, the Boggart's pranks wreak havoc. And even the newfound joys of peanut butter and pizza and fudge sauce eventually wear thin for the Boggart. He wants to go home — but his only hope lies in a risky and daring blend of modern technology and ancient magic.

Publishers Weekly

Newbery Medalist Cooper (The Grey King) spins a tale both haunting and comic, in which a Scottish spirit inadvertently moved to Canada pines for his ancestral manse. Ages 8-12. (Aug.)

Susan Cooper, one of today's most distinguished children's book writers, won a Newbery Medal and a Newbery Honor for books in her fantasy sequence, The Dark is Rising. She is also the author of King of Shadows, a Boston Globe — Horn Book Honor Book, and Green Boy, which was called "an intriguing and truly lovely book" by the New York Times Book Review. She lives in Fairfield, Connecticut, and her Web site is at www.thelostland.com.