Bound To Stay Bound

Booklist - 11/01/2014 It’s one thing when a bogle creeps into a cellar in Victorian London and snatches a child to devour, but it’s quite another when a section of the city experiences a veritable plague of the monsters. Out of work and down on his luck, young Jem coaxes Alfred the bogler out of retirement. Jem becomes his apprentice, serving as bait to lure bogles into the open, where Alfred can spear them. When Jem pursues a vicious old enemy, he finds himself in an equally terrifying situation. Readers who loved How to Catch a Bogle (2013), the first volume in this planned trilogy, will be glad that Birdie reappears in the second book. But from first to last, this is Jem’s story, a fast-paced adventure in which the main characters are both tough and tender. The darkly atmospheric setting creates a convincing backdrop for the frightening action scenes and flavorful period dialogue. An appended glossary defines period slang and monster-related terms. Don’t even think about reading this story under the covers by flashlight. - Copyright 2014 Booklist.

School Library Journal - 11/01/2014 Gr 4–6—After the climactic events of How to Catch a Bogle (Houghton Harcourt, 2013), Alfred Bunce has retired from killing the monsters that lurk in London. His former apprentice, Birdie McAdam, has moved on to study singing while living with the wealthy folklorist, Miss Eames. Jem Barbary, a former pickpocket, has bounced around from job to job, consumed with the desire for revenge against Sarah Pickles, who sold him off to be bogle bait. But when children go missing around Newgate prison, Alfred reluctantly agrees to take on another bogling job with Jem as his apprentice. Jem proves himself to be nimble and spry, using his quickness and acrobatics to escape bogles. One job leads to another and Alfred is unsettled by the unusually large concentration of bogles in one area. He and Jem are joined by Birdie and Miss Eames as they attempt to discover what has brought so many monsters to the same place. This second book in the trilogy is as engaging as the first, with exciting action scenes and a new protagonist as its focal point. Jem is used to relying on himself and though he is resourceful, he lacks Birdie's confidence. His practical outlook and determination make him an appealing character, even as his single-minded focus on finding the woman who betrayed him threatens to uproot the place he has found with Alfred. Well paced and with details and dialogue that transport readers to the streets (and sewers) of Victorian London, there is much to enjoy in this excellent adventure series.—Amanda Raklovits, Champaign Public Library, IL - Copyright 2014 Publishers Weekly, Library Journal and/or School Library Journal used with permission.

Bulletin for the Center... - 02/01/2015 Bogle exterminator par excellence Albert Bunce (whom readers met in How to Catch a Bogle, BCCB 10/13) is called out of semi-retirement to grapple with a fresh string of child disappearances in the Newgate Prison area of Victorian London. He has a new apprentice, Jem, but as tragedies mount, he must also call upon the services of Ned and Birdie, his former helpmates who are now leading more stable lives. They take on bogles from drains and crypts and sewers, ventilation ducts and charity school larders, but not all monsters are preternatural: Jem also pursues his private agenda of taking revenge on Sarah Pickles, the villainess who once sold him for bogle bait. Jinks reprises her previous bogle-ish title with lots of action and an undercurrent of sly humor, supplying return readers with all the gory monster-vanquishing they have come to expect. Best of all, she lays the groundwork for a further entry, with one evil human on the loose and a government commission for the bogle hunters to form the covert Committee for the Regulation of Subterranean Anomalies. Sounds like another winner in the works. EB - Copyright 2015 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois.