Friday, December 6, 2013

How to Catch a Bogle by Catherine Jinks

Pages:  320
Genre:  Middle Grade Fantasy
Source:  I received a copy to review. The opinions expressed here are my own. I was not compensated in anyway for my review.

From Goodreads:
If ever a chill entered her soul, or the hope suddenly drained from her heart, she knew a bogle was to blame. Birdie McAdam, a ten-year-old orphan, is tougher than she looks. She's proud of her job as apprentice to Alfred the Bogler, a man who catches monsters for a living. Birdie lures the bogles out of their lairs with her sweet songs, and Alfred kills them before they kill her. On the mean streets of Victorian England, hunting bogles is actually less dangerous work than mudlarking for scraps along the vile river Thames. (See glossary!) Or so it seems—until the orphans of London start to disappear .

My Thoughts:

This reminds me of Grimm's Fairytales because they are dark.  This is a dark story that takes place in Victorian London. During that time period you had the poor and the wealthy.  The wealthy did not associate with the poor unless they needed them to do work for them. The wealthy did not believe in Bogles, monsters who ate children.  These were tales the poor people told their children to keep them obedient.  If you were not lucky enough to have parents then you often found yourself working in a workhouse.  Lots of long hours, hard work and very little food.  A lot of kids starved to death.  Birdie McAdam is an orphan.  She is a lucky one though.  She is the apprentice to Alfred Bunce a Bogle killer.  Birdie’s job is simple she needs to sing.  Singing lures the Bogles out so that Bunce can kill them.  She considers the risk well worth it compared to working in a workhouse.  However, there seems to be more children disappearing.  After all, children are a Bogle’s favorite dish.  Tag along with Birdie and Bunce on this first adventure into the world of the Bogles.  The second book in the trilogy, A Plague of Bogles, will be out in the fall of 2014.  Afraid you might not understand the language from the Victorian era?  There is a handy glossary in the back.  This is a book you definitely need to check out.

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