Strongly recommended for a 9-12 yo reader who enjoys a bit of thrilling historical fantasy. Set in 1870s London, a plucky young apprentice monster hunter and her master trap and kill the child-eating "bogles" that infest dark places. This is a fun little adventure, with the pace and child well-pitched to the target audience. If read out loud, be sure to practise your best faux-Cockney accent. ( )

Even though I like the author i put off reading this book because of the atrocious cover. Quite enjoyed it once I actually started into it though. Genuinly creepy at times and funny at others. ( )

A fun little romp, with just enough teeth from its Dickensian orphans-of-London setting. As always, Catherine Jinks excels at young characters who still have very real concerns about their own lives, and the gumption to stand up and shout about it. ( )

I love books about imps, trolls, and goblins, but bogles? This creature is new to me. Evidently we don’t have bogles in America, but they run rampant in England. They make trolls and goblins look like pushovers. Judging by the book cover, they are downright nasty looking. In fact, they eat children, making their annihilation a matter of great concern. That brings us to the title of this book. To catch a bogle, you need a trained professional, aka a bogler. Alfred is the bogler and Birdie is the bogler’s apprentice. Her job is to lure the bogle into a circle of salt so Alfred can kill it before it eats her. Believe it or not, she likes her job.

We all know Victorian England is full of homeless orphans. Charles Dickens made that clear. With bogles running around it isn’t surprising that a few go missing now and then. Alfred and Birdie have their work cut out for them to find out what has happened to these children. Meanwhile, Mrs. Eames finds the whole bogle story suspect and asks to tag along on one of their jobs. Astonished to find bogles are real, she tries unsuccessfully to persuade Birdie to quit the bogling business. Birdie carries on and finds herself in a precarious situation when a doctor holds her against her will in an insane asylum until Alfred agrees to bring him a bogle to carry out his sinister plan.

I enjoy stories set in Victorian England. I’ve always considered it to be a mysterious and foreboding setting, which makes it perfect for monster stories. I love the vernacular and accent of the lower class British folks. Stories with multiple classes represented always have more depth and layers. In short, I liked this story, but I’m not sure how it will go over with kids. The cover doesn’t help sell it. In fact, it’s a deterrent, because it has an old look to it and American kids reject books with old looking covers. If they change the cover, I will buy it. ( )

I liked this book well enough, but in the end there wasn't really anything that grabbed me about it. ( )