I respect the idea of dedicating a book to Margaret Mahy, but this was just okay for me.

Library copy

Boggart and friends vs Donald William Trump Trout. Can they save Stalker Castle Castle Keep, the Appin coastline and its wildlife from becoming a huge holiday resort for the rich?

Well, it's a book for kids, so you guess.

It's a charming adventure involving the afore-mentioned shape-changing trickster spirit of Scottish folklore, the Boggart of Clan MacDevon and the youngest human members of the Clan - Jay and Allie Cameron (long story). Various other creatures from Scottish folklore also show up, playing into Cooper's strengths as illustrated by her famous Dark is Rising sequence.

Release the...Nuckalevee!

Boggarts, Blue Men, the Scottish equivalent of a Banshee - but none of them can do more than slow down the Trout depredations.

Susan Cooper can do no wrong, and Miles Standish was a jerk.

This book wasn't much like my much-beloved Dark Is Rising sequence (seriously, go read that!), but that's a good thing.

Instead, she gives us a gripping historical fiction about a native american boy named Little Hawk who grew up just as the Plymouth Colony was being founded.

Not a spoiler: this book doesn't turn out like your typical Kindergarten Thanksgiving pageant.

Anyway, I loved this book. It was much more "Hawk" than "Ghost", in that I was expecting some sort of spooky story, and it wasn't spooky, just touching.

Hawk and his counterpart John Wakeley lead interesting lives. It's a mark of good fiction that I could totally imagine myself born into either characters' circumstance and making their choices.

It was interesting reading this book after Salman Rushdie's Satanic Verses. Obvs there is nothing in common, but Rushdie's main thesis was about watching groups or ideologies and how they behave when they are oppressed, and how they behave when they are majorities.

I remember being in Kindergarten or First Grade and having the teacher trying really hard to define the word "irony" and talk about how the Pilgrims, who were so persecuted in England (and Holland!) for their religion were so intolerant of others' beliefs. I don't think I understood it then. I sure do now. In fact this book kinda depressed me. Also, my favorite holiday is Thanksgiving, and I think having read this book is going to put a damper on my enthusiasm for celebrating future Thanksgivings.

Highly recommended.