A wonderful and terrifying series by a new writer about a young boy training to be an exorcist. Thomas Ward is the seventh son of a seventh son and has been apprenticed to the local Spook. The job is hard, the Spook is distant and many apprentices have falled before Thomas. Somehow Thomas must learn how to exorcise ghosts, contain witches and bind boggarts. But when he is tricked into freeing Mother Malkin, the most evil witch in the County, the horror begins..
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Editorial Reviews
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" This thrilling and terrifying book should not be read after dark! - Parent: News An absorbing tale with scary scenarios and a great central relationship between Thomas and his master. - Funday Times Zounds! Delaney delights us with the power of his spooken words. Thought-provoking fantasy... A ruse by any other name would smell as sweet. - Bournemouth Daily Echo Teenage readers looking instead for total fantasy should hasten to Joseph Delaney's The Spook's Apprentice (Bodley Head, [pound]8.99). Clad in a sinister brown cover, this terrific novel is as black as David Wyatt's ingenious ink drawings that head each chapter.. Young Thomas can only just cope with these demons; the horrors he faces are made more credible by the cleverly laid-back way in which his story is told. - The Independent"
About the Author
Joseph Delaney is an English teacher living in Lancashire. He has three children and six grandchildren and is a wonderful public speaker available for conference, library and bookshop events. His home is in the middle of Boggart territory and his village has a boggart called The Hall Knocker, which was laid to rest under the step of a house near the church. Believe it or not, the haunted house in The Spook's Apprentice is based on fact! As a child, Joseph lived in a similar house in Preston where he had a recurrent nightmare. In the dream he'd be sitting on a carpet in the front room whilst his mother was knitting. Then, everything would become cold and a shadow-thing would come up from the coal cellar, pick him up and carry him back towards the dark. What's even more spooky... his brothers had the same nightmare! Joe Delaney is an English teacher living in Lancashire. He has three children and six grandchildren and is a wonderful public speaker available for conference, library and bookshop events. His home is in the middle of
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More About the Author
Joseph Delaney formerly taught media and film studies at a high school in Blackpool, England. He lives with his family in Lancashire, in the middle of boggart territory.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
16 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent Spooky'ness!,
By
This review is from: Spook's Apprentice (No.1) (Paperback)
"The Spook's Apprentice", and the sequel "The Spook's Curse" are excellent entertainment! They are in fact quite scary, so I wouldn't recommend them to kids that are too young (personally I'd say 11+) or prone to nightmares.
The main character Thomas Ward is both credible and very human! The storytelling flows well, and you are quickly caught up in the story. The County comes alive before you, as you partake in Thomas' journey towards becoming a Spook - the medival equivalent of Ghostbusters :-) Only this is far more gloomy and sinister. There's also humor and suspense in these books, and even as an adult i read them both in 4 days, and I'm now annoyed that the third book won't be out before April! The series has a very interesting take on good and evil - you choose your own path, and if you try hard enough, maybe you can direct the people you care about away from the dark side. There are also some interesting points on dealing with fear, narrowminded people and well.. boggarts, whitches and ghosts! I like the fact that apart from a few villains, things in these books are "grey-shaded". Good witches exist (benign), and the Spook has a pet boggart that cooks, cleans and protects the household. The "good guys" have faults and make bad choices. So order the books, wait for a stormy night, make a huge amount of coffee or hot chocolate, and crawl under the covers and be spooked! (in the best sense of the word:-)
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great start to a great series,
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This review is from: Spook's Apprentice (No.1) (Paperback)
Good book, great series. A well written 13 year old's point of veiw on things. The adventures a spook go on are endless, very creepy and growing as a person is taught along the way.
9 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Delightful,
By
This review is from: Spook's Apprentice (No.1) (Paperback)
For all of us 11 and older who love fantasy, this is a delightful book. Delaney has created great characters from Spook and Thomas, to Thomas' family and other characters, good and bad. I want to know how one gets a house boggart. The back of the book states "Warning: Not to be Read After Dark." It's not quite that bad for adults but may make children cautious of mirrors. I very much enjoyed this book and look forward to the 2nd and 3rd books
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