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Curse of the Boggin

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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.
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