Delaney, Joseph. (2005). The Last Apprentice: Revenge of the Witch. London: Red Fox. ISBN: 0060766182
· Plot Summary
Young Thomas Ward is the son of a farmer, but more importantly, he is the seventh son of a seventh son, and his mother has knowledge most others don't possess about things that go bump in the night. When she explains to Old Gregory, the local Spook (ghost, boggart, ogre, and witchhunter), that her son can be his new apprentice, Thomas's course is set. Forced to undergo a night alone in a haunted house, and unwittingly befriending the granddaughter of one of the worst witches in the county, Thomas learns the skills he must possess to someday replace Old Gregory.
· Critical Evaluation
The first in a series of novels about Thomas Ward (Wardstone Chronicles), and written from his point of view, the reader is drawn into a world most strange. No exact time or location is provided, though certain mentions suggest Great Britain or rural New England of the late 1600s, the age of witch trials and superstition. This is not a world of black and white, all good v all evil though, and Delaney makes it possible for the reader to see many shades of gray and in between.
· Reader’s Annotation
Rural life during an age of superstition, and the harsh truths of being different, are both vividly portrayed.
· Information about the author
Joseph Delaney began his career as an engineer, but changed to become an English teacher after his college graduation. His first novel was an erotic, science fiction thriller, and penned under the name J.K. Haderack.
· Genre
Fiction, Fantasy
· Booktalking Ideas
Halloween events.
Witches, ghosts, and other things that go bump in the night.
Witch trials in 17th century Britain.
· Reading Level/Interest Age
Grades 6-8/Ages 10-12
· Why did you include this book in the titles you selected?
Chose this book for daughter originally, but she never read it, and I thought it sounded interesting. We both enjoy accounts of things that go bump in the night, real and fiction.
