Skip to main content

Curse of the Boggin

Curse of the Boggin
(The Library, Book 1)
by D. J. MacHale
Random House, 2016. Fantasy. 242 p.

First in MacHale's new series (The Library, Book 1), Curse of the Boggin begins with a nine-year-old boy named Alec who is scared of something under his bed. Only this time there really is something there - a big black pit bull who chases him out the window and onto the roof. His father, following his terrified cries arrives in time to save Alec but not to save himself as the pit bull drives him off the roof to his death on the pavement four stories down. All that remains is a sentence carved into the wood of Alec's bedroom floor: Surrender the key.  Enter Marcus O'Mara, cocky middle-schooler who starts to see visions of his own - a frightening old lady in a green dress, a black bull charging through the hallways of his middle school. Scariest of all, he is being shadowed by a man in a bathrobe who turns out to be Alec Swenor's dead father, Michael. Turns out Marcus is the heir to the key the witchy woman wants surrendered to her, and the key opens the door to The Library, an otherworldly place where everyone's story is on the shelf, either finished or in progress. In this adventure, Marcus and his friends must defeat the Boggin, a frightening creature who thrives on the fear of others, and finish Michael Swenor's story. Tweens should love this thriller by the much-beloved author of the Pendragon series.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

If You Like...KPop Demon Hunters

KPop Demon Hunters has been one of the most talked-about movies of the summer. If you loved this movie as much as I did, you don't want the magic (or the music) to stop. Try reading these books that touch on some of the same topics and themes as the animated hit! Brick Dust and Bones By M. R. Fournet New York: Feiwel and Friends, 2023. Fiction. 247 pages. Orphaned Marius works in the family business--as their cemetery's ghost caretaker. However, Marius also moonlights as a monster hunter in order to earn the costly Mystic currency he needs to bring his mother back from the dead. As the window to bring his mother back begins to close, Marius's exploits get more and more dangerous, and he may have set his sights on a monster too big to handle on his own. Like Mira, Marius longs for familial connection, and his work as a monster hunter will satisfy the thrill of demon hunting for fans the movie. Where's Halmoni? By Julie J. Kim Seattle, WA: Little Bigfoot, 2017. Comics. W...

Review: Fowl Play

  Fowl Play By Kristin O'Donnell Tubb New York: Katherine Tegen Books, 2024. Fiction 277 pages. Still reeling from her beloved uncle's death, Chloe Alvarez is comforted and confused when at his last will and testament reading, Uncle Will gifts her his African Grey parrot, Charlie. Charlie has a robust vocabulary and loves to make Alexa requests for her favorite songs, but when she starts saying things like, "homicide," and "cyanide," Chloe becomes convinced that Uncle Will may have met his demise by murder instead of a genetic disease, as was previously thought. Ultimately, bringing in her brother, Grammy, and Uncle Frank (and of course Charlie,) Chloe's ragtag and adoring family support her search for answers ---going on stakeouts, engaging in fast pursuits, and searching for clues. But as the suspects stack up and the mystery grows, Chole will learn that the process of death and grieving is complicated, and in the end her Uncle Will's words that, ...

Review: Blood in the Water

Blood in the Water By Tiffany D. Jackson New York: Scholastic, 2025. Fiction. 255 pages. 12-year-old Kaylani McKinnon can't help but feel like a fish out of water. She's a Brooklyn girl spending her summer on Martha's Vineyard surrounded by wealthy family friends in their mansion. All she really wants is to stay home all summer where she her incarcerated father can easily reach her, and she can keep working to find ways to prove him innocent of fraud and embezzlement. Despite her protests, she finds herself on the island with the snooty granddaughters of her host. Soon after Kaylani's arrival, a popular teen boy is found murdered and she decides to conduct her own investigation. As she tries to discover what happened to Chadwick Cooper, Kaylani finds that not everything on Martha's Vineyard is as perfect as it appears. Thrillers for middle grade readers can be hard to find, but Tiffany D. Jackson succeeds in her first middle grade novel. A quick moving plot, tight d...