With the plague of bogles in Victorian London barely contained, bogle hunter Alfred Bunce needs all the help he can get. So Ned Roach becomes a bogler"s apprentice, luring child-eating monsters from their lairs just like his friends Jem and Birdie. It"s dangerous work that takes Ned into mysterious and hidden parts of the city. Yet times in London are changing; as the machine age emerges, the very existence of bogles is questioned, and the future of bogling is in jeopardy. And the stakes get even higher for the team of boglers when an old enemy appears-a threat that may be deadlier than any bogle.
“This is top-notch storytelling, full of wit, a colorful cast of rogues, and delectable slang.” —Publishers Weekly, starred review of How to Catch a Bogle
Jem Barbary spent most of his early life picking pockets for a wily old crook named Sarah Pickles—until she betrayed him. Now Jem wants revenge, but first he needs a new job. Luckily Alfred the bogler, the man who kills the child-eating monsters that hide in the shadows of Victorian London, needs a new apprentice. As more and more orphans disappear under mysterious circumstances, Alfred, Jem, and Birdie find themselves waging an underground war in a city where science clashes with superstition and monsters lurk in every alley.
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. Or so it seems—until the orphans of London start to disappear . . .
Eleven year old Marcus loves video games and hates the beach. So he is not happy when his mum Holly drags him to Diamond Beach, the place she loved as a child. Once there, Holly meets Coco, her friend from her childhood. She is there with her electronics-obsessed husband, Sterling Huckstepp, and their kids, cool teenage Newt, pizza-loving Edison and the family robot, Prot. Opening a door into the basement of Holly's caravan, Edison discovers the most amazing amusement park. Whoever opens a door in the basement finds themselves in their very own dream vacation. But when the dream becomes impossible to escape from, it all begins to feel more like a nightmare: Marcus, Holly, and the Huckstepps find themselves trapped in a matrix of terrifyingly perfect dreamscapes peopled with strange characters that will allow them to do anything they want, except leave...A whirlwind adventure at a breakneck speed.
When Tobias Richard Vandevelde wakes up in a hospital with no memory of the night before, his horrified mother tells him that he was found unconscious. At Featherdale Wildlife Park. In a dingo pen. He assumes that his two best friends are somehow responsible, until the mysterious Reuben turns up, claiming that Toby has a rare and dangerous "condition." Next thing he knows, Toby finds himself involved with a strange bunch of sickly insomniacs who seem convinced that he needs their help. It's not until he's kidnapped and imprisoned that he starts to believe them-and to understand what being a paranormal monster really means.
After abandoning a life full of deception and mistrust, fifteen-year-old Cadel has finally found his niche. He has a proper home, good friends, and loving parents. He’s even studying at a real university.
But he’s still not safe from Prosper English, who’s now a fugitive from justice and determined to smash everything that Cadel has struggled to build. When Cadel’s nearest and dearest are threatened, he must launch an all-out attack on the man he once viewed as his father.
Can Cadel track down Prosper before it’s too late? And what rules will he have to break in the process?
Contrary to popular opinion, vampires are not sexy, romantic, or powerful. In case you hadn't noticed, vampires are dead. And the only ones who don't get staked are the ones who avoid attacking people, admit they have a problem, and join a support group. Just ask Nina Harrison-fanged at fifteen, and still living with her mother. She hasn't aged since 1973, and the highlight of her sickly, couch-bound life is probably her Tuesday-night group meeting, which she spends with a miserable bunch of fellow sufferers, being lectured at.
But then one of the group is mysteriously turned to ashes . . . and suddenly they're all under threat. That's when Nina decides to prove that every vampire on earth isn't a weak, pathetic loser. Along with her friend Dave-a former punk rocker who could be pretty cute, if he weren't such a vampire-she travels way out of her comfort zone to track down the killer. It could be that there is a lot more to being a vampire than Nina realized.
A lot has changed for Cadel Piggott recently. Everything he thought he knew about his life has been blown to bits. In some cases, literally. He still has a genius IQ and a fascination with systems of all kinds, but he's no longer in cahoots with Dr. Darkkon, the most powerful criminal mastermind in the world, and he's no longer the star pupil at the Axis Institute for World Domination. In fact, now he's in foster care, awaiting the trial at which he'll have to testify against evil genius Prosper English, a man who was once believed to be Cadel's father.
With round-the-clock surveillance-intended to keep him safe until he can testify-and no computer to call his own, Cadel really doesn't have much of a life
at all.
So when a group called Genius Squad approaches him to join a secret investigation into GenoME, Dr. Darkkon's pet project, Cadel can't say no, even though he suspects Genius Squad is not quite what it seems-and even though he's sure they won't be able to protect him if Prosper English makes a jailbreak.
CATHERINE JINKS is the author of many award-winning and internationally recognised books for adults, young adults and kids, written in a wide range of genres (including murder mysteries, historical fiction, horror and science fiction). She has garnered many awards, including the Children's Book Council of Australia Book of the Year Award (three times), the Victorian Premier's Award, the Aurealis Award for Science Fiction, the Australian Ibby Award, and the Davitt Award for Crime Fiction. Catherine has been writing books since she was eight years old. She doesn't expect to stop writing them any time soon. Learn more about Catherine at www.catherinejinks.com
