The Boggart
#7363.76 adjusted 3.79 for sample size in the official ranking · full ranking
Books 3 books Status Complete 1993–2018 Reading commitment Low Susan Cooper Last reviewed 2026-10-08
Overview
Susan Cooper's comic trilogy (1993-2018) stars a boggart, an ancient, invisible, shape-shifting spirit of mischief from Scottish folklore who has haunted Castle Keep on Loch Linnhe for centuries, and the Canadian family who inherit the castle. The Boggart carries him by accident to Toronto in an antique desk, where his pranks run riot among electricity and computers; The Boggart and the Monster takes him and the children to Loch Ness to help Nessie, another boggart stuck in a monster's shape, which won the Scottish Arts Council's children's book award; The Boggart Fights Back, twenty-one years later, pits him and the family's grandchildren against an American developer's resort. Gentler than Cooper's Dark Is Rising, and a separate world from it and from King of Shadows.
Comic fantasy, Urban fantasy · For Middle grade
Core Canon: Reading Order (3 works) counts toward ranking
The Boggart Susan Cooper
| Work | Year | Internal chron. | Canon | Rating | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | The Boggart | 1993 | 1 | core | 3.76 (4,976 ratings) |
 | The Boggart and the Monster | 1997 | 2 | core | 3.73 (1,015 ratings) |
 | The Boggart Fights Back | 2018 | 3 | core | 3.83 (165 ratings) |
Susan Cooper's comic trilogy about a boggart, a mischievous, invisible, shape-shifting spirit of Scottish folklore who has haunted Castle Keep on Loch Linnhe for centuries, and the Canadian family who inherit the castle and, with it, him.
Quick answers
- How many books are in The Boggart? The Boggart's Core Canon is 3 books.
- What is the reading order for The Boggart? Publication order, starting with The Boggart. Full list and years in the Core Canon table above.
- Is The Boggart finished? Complete (1993–2018).
- How much reading does The Boggart take? Low reading commitment (estimated from 3 Core Canon books · ~605 pages).
- How is The Boggart ranked? #736 in this site's official ranking, based on 6,156 reader ratings across 3 Core Canon books. See the full ranking for how this is calculated.
Why is it ranked #736?
Ranked #736 in the official ranking.
- Average reader rating of 3.76 across 3 core books.
- A smaller readership (6,156 ratings), so the score carries less weight of numbers.
- Remarkably consistent across the whole series: all 3 rated core books rate within 0.10 of each other.
- 0.01 behind #735, Crossroads.
- Below the top-10 average of 4.45.
Why explore this universe?
Rated · 3 books · Complete · 6k ratings · Ranks #736 overall
Good choice if you want a quick, low-commitment comic fantasy universe that's already finished, so there's no wait for the next book.
Reading order
Publication order (3 Core Canon books)
- The Boggart (1993)
- The Boggart and the Monster (1997)
- The Boggart Fights Back (2018)
Documented internal/story chronology is recorded for every Core Canon book here, and matches publication order exactly, with no divergence to show separately.
Awards (verified)
- Scottish Arts Council Children's Book Award, 1998: won: The Boggart and the Monster; Per the publisher's author note; year of presentation taken as the year after publication.
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Suggestions computed from what The Boggart and each of these worlds have in common on record (subgenre, audience, shape, reading commitment and score), not a documented narrative connection.
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Official resources
Research details
Ranking metrics: weighted average 3.76 across 6,156 ratings on 3 Core Canon books. See Why is it ranked here? above for the full breakdown, or the full ranking.
How do we know this?
Admission: Canon extension: The Boggart (Susan Cooper) accepted 2026-10-08
Sources: (see source tier definitions)
- Wikipedia Tier 2
Last reviewed: 2026-10-08
Rule: Core Canon = The Boggart (1993), The Boggart and the Monster (1997) and The Boggart Fights Back (2018), complete trilogy.