In a deft meshing of ancient magic and modern culture, the lives of three contemporary children become entangled with the Boggart, a mischievous spirit from the Western Highlands of Scotland. Inadvertently transported from Scotland to the U.S.A., the Boggart makes his American debut with small tricks: hiding hockey sticks and hats, rearranging bookshelves and filling the sugar bowl with salt. But in a country which has forgotten the Wild Magic, the Boggart's antics cause tension instead of the usual Scottish tolerance. Bewildered by the many differences of his new home, the Boggart is amazed by the unfamiliar, but when he begins toying with traffic signals and streetcar wires, his innocent pranks become dangerous. This story of the collision of magic with mundane life satisfyingly concludes in an imaginative but believable mix of fantasy and computer technology. (Ages 9-12)

In a tumbledown castle in the Western Highlands of Scotland lives the Boggart. He is invisible -- an ancient mischievous spirit, solitary and sly, born of a magic as old as the rocks and the waves. He has lived in Castle Keep for centuries, playing tricks on the owners. But the last Scottish owner has died and left the castle to his great-nephew Robert Volnik of Toronto, Canada. The Volnik family -- including Emily and her nine-year-old computer genius brother Jessup -- visit Castle Keep, and when they return to Toronto, they unwittingly take the Boggart with them.
The astonishments, delight, and horrors that invade their lives with the arrival of the Boggart fill this swiftly moving story. The collision of modern techology and the Old Magic brings perils nobody could have imagined -- and, in the end, an amazing and touching solution to the problem of the Boggart who has found himself on the wrong side of the ocean.
Sometimes extremely funny, sometimes wildly scary,and always totally absorbing, this remarkable story -- brilliantly imagined and beautifully written -- marks the return of the Newbery Award winner Susan Cooper to the field of novels for young readers. An outstanding achievement, The Boggart will work its special magic on all who read it.